{"id":270821,"date":"2026-04-16T14:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/270821\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T14:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:23:16","slug":"a-james-beard-recognized-pastry-chef-makes-a-quiet-comeback-in-the-dogpatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/270821\/","title":{"rendered":"A James Beard-recognized pastry chef makes a quiet comeback in the Dogpatch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vince Bugtong stands in a basement kitchen, studying a tray of green ume, a Japanese plum. Though he hasn\u2019t worked with the ingredient before, he has devised a plan to braise the tart little stone fruits in syrup and combine them with lychee to make a marmalade. It will be served with the Italian doughnuts called zeppole at Piccino, the Dogpatch restaurant where he is the pastry chef.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the flavor and acidity and earthiness will go with a floral flavor like lychee,\u201d Bugtong says. \u201cI like a challenge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This underground kitchen is Bugtong\u2019s lab, where he cooks up experimental ideas like a riff on a Spanish and Filipino layer cake made with French buttercream and nuts. It\u2019s based on a recipe he used when he was executive pastry chef at Viridian Bar in Oakland in 2020, when the groundbreaking cocktail destination burst onto the dining scene \u2014 and when Bugtong \u201ccame out of his shell\u201d and earned a reputation for infusing Filipino and Asian flavors into desserts.<\/p>\n

\"AA strawberry guava lemon danish at Piccino Coffee Bar.<\/p>\n

He went on to become co-pastry chef at modern Filipino restaurant Abac\u00e1 in San Francisco and, in 2023, earned a James Beard nomination<\/a> for outstanding pastry chef or baker. Then he took a two-year break from restaurants \u2014 it was a struggle to find a sustainable work-life balance \u2014 and worked at a gelateria in Redwood City.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s at Piccino, better than ever, and still pushing boundaries with unique combinations of Asian flavors. But this time, you could say, he\u2019s in his Italian era.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Bugtong staged (the culinary equivalent of an audition) for the restaurant\u2019s owners, Sheryl Rogat and Margherita Sagan, it was an immediate match.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVince has the enthusiasm of an 8-year-old with the skills of a 50-year-old,\u201d Sagan says. (In fact, Bugtong is 32.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bugtong and a small team produce breads, pastries, and plated desserts for Piccino and the Piccino Coffee Bar next door. Since he started in September, he has increased the coffee shop\u2019s daily assortment of pastries from 10 to 17.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bugtong has expanded the pastry selection.<\/p>\n

Menu staples include a ginger scone, a chocolate chip cookie, and a banana muffin. (The scone is Sagan\u2019s recipe, the same she baked for the original Blue Bottle kiosk in Hayes Valley.) On a recent Wednesday, there were also syrup-glazed chocolate croissants, a danish with strawberry guava jam and Meyer lemon curd, a scallion scone, and mini se\u00f1ora bread \u2014 Bugtong\u2019s take on Filipino bakery Starbread\u2019s locally famous se\u00f1orita bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been simplifying my desserts a lot more,\u201d Bugtong says, \u201cbut I still put my flair on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knew he had to perfect a croissant, the pastry for which San Franciscans will famously wait in line for hours<\/a>. For that, he has the help of Jose Pinto, pastry cook at the Presidio Piccino restaurant, who previously worked at Arsicault.<\/p>\n

Bugtong is also tasked with making focaccia for the mortadella takeout sandwiches sold in the coffee shop and bread and desserts for the restaurant. He makes gelato and ice cream from scratch and added a bananas Foster dessert inspired by the cafe\u2019s signature banana muffin.<\/p>\n

\"AA twice-baked filled almond croissant and strawberry guava lemon danish.\"ThreeSe\u00f1ora bread.<\/p>\n

His two years away from intense restaurant culture awakened his Italian obsession, he says. While working at the gelateria, he attended SIGEP World \u2014 the international gelato convention \u2014 for research and development. During that trip, his first to Italy, he discovered flavors like fior di latte and gianduia, a chocolate and hazelnut confection that he now makes for Piccino.<\/p>\n

His expanded horizons have inspired him to continue charting new territory as he marries European baking techniques with Asian American flavors. \u201cI want people to be comfortable with what they know and also try something exciting and new at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vince Bugtong stands in a basement kitchen, studying a tray of green ume, a Japanese plum. Though he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[27769,414,16191,6491,35067,143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-270821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-cafes","9":"tag-chefs","10":"tag-desserts","11":"tag-dogpatch","12":"tag-eat-here","13":"tag-oakland","14":"tag-oakland-headlines","15":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}