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Photo: Wonho Frank Lee
Jen Yee was pitting cherries when I arrived at her commissary kitchen in Los Angeles’s Chinatown on a Thursday morning in late June. “Do you want a cherry? They’re so good. They’re so sweet,” she said, nodding towards the tub full of mahogany fruit. I happily obliged, then agreed. She had picked them up from Andy’s Orchard at the Santa Monica Farmers Market the day before for her seasonal fruit danish at Bakers Bench, the bakery she runs out of a kiosk on the other side of the Far East Plaza. Yee’s danish, along with her croissants and her cookies, are entirely vegan unless you count the honey used in her frangipane, which many vegans don’t eat. After several years running the pastry program at the Japanese sandwich spot Konbi, where her croissants were revered, and many more working in professional kitchens, Bakers Bench is her first solo project.