Wagashi whisperer
ELLIE ESTRADA-LONDO • Nisei
WORK • Wednesday Routine
ELLIE ESTRADA-LONDO • pastry chef • Nisei
Neighborhood you work in: Russian Hill
Neighborhood you live in: Bayview
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I sometimes still have to pinch myself — I’m living out one of my wildest dreams as pastry chef at Nisei, a Japanese one-Michelin-star restaurant in San Francisco. I try not to take for granted how fortunate I am to do the thing I’m most obsessed with — paying homage to a culture I’ve come to know closely through my upbringing — in my favorite city in the world.
I arrive around 10a. The building is already abuzz: mixers humming, ovens preheating, pans clattering as the morning team sets up for service. Before long, the kitchen fills with cooks at every level of the brigade, all moving in a chaotic but somehow harmonious tangle as we tackle mile-long prep lists, maintain spotless stations, and cook staff meal before doors open at 5p.
Then the real work begins. The rush of sending out plate after perfect plate — each one with the same level of precision and intention — is a feeling I haven’t found anywhere else. It’s chaotic, choreographed, exhausting, and completely addictive.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Right now, I’m deep in development for our spring menu. In California especially, chefs wait all year for spring: for the first strawberries, tender peas, rhubarb, cherry blossoms. It feels like possibility. Alongside the seasonal menu, I’m refining the newest iteration of my dessert tasting menu. We launched a chef’s counter-style dessert tasting experience over the holidays, and the response has been incredibly encouraging. This year, I want to take it up a notch with more storytelling, more surprise, more theater.
And if I can somehow carve out the time, I’d love to revive my bakery pop-up Hello Stranger.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
I always laugh when people ask if I’m going out to dinner soon. The honest answer is rarely. But I’m really looking forward to dining at The Happy Crane — the pastry chef is a former colleague and an absolute genius — as well as La Cigale. It may take some orchestration to make it happen, but I’ve heard such wonderful things about both.
How about leisure or culture?
As a proud member of the “married to your restaurant job” club, my days off are usually reserved for sleep and catching up on life. That said, I recently loved the Art of Manga exhibition at the de Young Museum. It was playful, nostalgic, and deeply artistic all at once, a reminder of how storytelling can live across so many mediums.
Any weekend getaways?
On the rare three-day weekend when both my husband’s and my schedules align, we escape to Calistoga and stay at Indian Springs Calistoga. Come for the 100-year-old geyser-fed Olympic-sized pool; stay for the charming small-town energy. The hot spring pool is open until midnight, and there’s nothing better than a late-night soak under the stars, the perfect remedy for tired chef bones.
What was your last great vacation?
This winter, we continued my family’s annual pilgrimage to Japan, this year spending two weeks in Fukuoka, a city none of us had explored before despite many trips there. It’s a cooler, funkier, more relaxed counterpoint to Tokyo or Kyoto, and just a quick hop from Korea. We stayed at the Nishitetsu Grand Hotel. It feels a bit like stepping into the Grand Budapest Hotel — not the newest digs, but full of charm, warm service, and ideally located near incredible food and nightlife.
One unforgettable meal was at Yorgo, a Japanese-French restaurant tucked behind a dumpling shop. It’s an intimate 360-degree chef’s-counter experience with inventive dishes and a thoughtful natural wine list. The lotus root gnocchi, katsu Wellington, and oyster radish gratin were standouts. Fukuoka is also great for thrift shopping, late-night bites, and wandering without an agenda, which might be my favorite kind of vacation.
Photo: Jason Leung