Lisa Paradise: This is a cardamom bun.
While it's a staple pastry in Swedish homes
and bakeries, the flavor is pretty
unfamiliar to most Americans.
So we're headed to Fabrique, a recently opened bakery
in the Meatpacking District of New York,
to try out these buns and see
what the hype is all about.
What is your favorite thing to eat here?
Customer: I think it has to be the cardamom bun.
Oh, my God. I'm here probably twice a week.
Lisa: Really?
Customer: Sometimes three, yeah.
Lisa: They say, if you ask a Swede
if they know what Fabrique is,
they'll ask you if you know who Beyoncé is.
Which, in my opinion, is some pretty stellar praise.
Fabrique has been a staple in Sweden since 2008,
but they finally graced New York with their presence
and with their sweet and crunchy cardamom bun
just this May.
But before I get to dig into it,
I'm gonna step in the kitchen
and see how these things are made.
Let's do it.
Fabrique opened in Stockholm in 2008
as the brainchild of Charlotta and David Zetterström.
Since its debut, Fabrique has expanded to 19 locations
in Stockholm and six in London.
And this is its first US location.
Fabrique's cardamom buns are among its most popular items.
And that's not surprising, considering the fact
that Scandinavians are one of the largest importers
of cardamom and have been using the spice
in their cooking for hundreds of years.
Johanna Svensson: I don't know when we started it,
but it's been used in forever.
The cardamom bun has always been in the bakeries.
Lisa: That's Johanna Svensson, one of the head bakers
at Fabrique New York.
She took us into the kitchen to see
how she's making these decadent pastries.
Lisa: Do you ever get tired of cardamom?
Johanna: Never. Lisa: Never?
Johanna: Never get tired of cardamom.
Lisa: Tell me why.
Johanna: It's so delicious.
It's the best bun.
It's my favorite bun also, so.
Lisa: OK.
Johanna: It's the best one.
Lisa: Do you go home smelling like this bakery?
Johanna: Yeah, I do.
I can smell it in the subway also,
like, "Who is smelling?
Oh, it's me."
If you smell the cardamom, just like this,
like, a whole, whole bowl with cardamom,
it's almost like a little menthol.
Lisa: The process of making these 12 buns
begins with a whole bunch of pastry staples:
flour, butter, sugar, and yeast.
The special addition is cardamom,
and we mean a lot of cardamom.
Once the dough has rested,
it passes through a flattening device
until it's ready to be stuffed full
of butter and another generous sprinkling
of sugar and cardamom.
The dough is then folded and flattened again by hand
before it's sliced into the thin strips
that will create the woven shape of the cardamom bun.
How do we shape a cardamom bun?
Johanna: Yeah, so you take one stripe,
like this, here you go.
Lisa: Thank you.
Johanna: And I will take one also,
and then you put your fingers like this.
Lisa: Like a peace sign?
Johanna: You hold it and then you turn it.
Exactly. And then one more.
Take it over the whole bun,
and then you're pushing it in.
Lisa: Oh, no, I have such small fingers. OK.
Johanna: Pushing it.
Lisa: Trying to get, like, get the tail through.
Johanna: Exactly.
Lisa: I actually went to pastry school,
and I feel like my chefs, my teaching chefs
are gonna watch this and be like, no.
Like, your degree is revoked.
Johanna: No, they will not.
Lisa: The buns get an egg wash and yet another
sprinkling of sugar and cardamom
before they're baked for exactly 14 minutes.
Fabrique sells a variety of pastries,
including cinnamon buns, raspberry cakes,
blueberry buns, brownies, and chocolate buns.
But the cardamom bun is the one item on the menu
that has emerged as a clear winner here in New York.
Victoria Nilsson: Most Americans didn't even really
know what cardamom was.
Because when we first opened, we kept getting
a lot of questions about, "What is cardamom?"
So it was something new,
and I think that made them curious,
and then it's kind of difficult to explain
the flavor of it, but we always let them try it,
and when they tried it it was like,
"Ah, what is this, it's so good!"
Customer: It's both soft and crunchy at the same time,
and it feels really, really light.
This is better than Dominique Ansel.
Oh, I shouldn't say that on camera.
Lisa: That is, like, a crime against New York.
Customer: Sorry.
No, no, no, it's the new Dominique Ansel.
But better.
Lisa: Wow, that is a hot take, sir.
Customer: I come out on the street, and walking by,
there's always a long line.
And it smells amazing, and I just walk in.
Customer: I had been to the Fabrique in Stockholm
and really loved the cardamom buns
and had also been to the one in London
when I was visiting and was really excited
that one opened up in New York.
Lisa: So, the first thing I'm noticing with this
is that the bun is, A, fresh out of the oven.
Where in New York can you get a bun
this fresh out of the oven?
The other thing that I'm noticing
is the way that the layers,
of the way that this bun is shaped,
is so unique.
You can really, now that the bun is baked,
you can really see the different layers
of all of the different pieces of dough
wrapped around each other to make this really unique shape,
and then, of course, this crystally, caramelly
sugar and cardamom on top
makes it seem like it's gonna be crunchy.
Wow.
It's unique.
It's different than anything I've had in New York.
It's soft, it's crunchy, it's sweet, it's savory.
I'm gonna get out of here.
I'm gonna take 12 of these with me,
and I'm not gonna share them
because these are one of the best things
I've eaten this year.
And I will see you later.