By GWEN MURANAKA, Rafu Senior Editor
Cream Pan Bakery of Tustin was honored as the best bakery in California this week, according to Yelp’s Elite Squad.
Cream Pan was founded in 2002 by Yoshinori Inada, and also has locations in Fountain Valley and Lomita.
In a post on Instagram, Cream Pan stated, “Thank you so much for supporting this bakery shop! This helps get our name out there, so again thank you for your support.”
Cream Pan was selected the best in Yelp’s “Treat Yourself in Every State” and is known for its array of croissants, tarts and scones, as well as Japanese specialties such as hand rolls and katsu sandwiches. Their signature dessert is the strawberry crossaint, an invention of Inada.
In a 2021 interview with The Rafu Shimpo, Inada said, “I don’t remember how I came up with the idea, but strawberry and fresh fruits look pretty.”
Originally from Osaka, Inada learned to bake while working at a part-time job after graduating high school. In 1988, at age 19, he quit his job and moved to New York to work at a bakery. He spent two months there before getting hired as the head and only baker in Brookline, Mass.
He set out to create his own bakery in 2000 by driving a pickup truck across the U.S. looking for the perfect location. The search started in Boston and took him to New York, Washington, D.C., South Carolina, then west to California. He crossed the country twice before deciding on opening his first Cream Pan Bakery in Tustin in 2002.
The Yelp Elite Squad is a group of photographers, writers selected annually from within the Yelp reviewers.
Other selections by the Yelp reviewers include Leonard’s Bakery (http://leonardshawaii.com) in Honolulu, which is known for their malasadas, and Tokyo Premium Bakery in Denver (http://tokyopremiumbakery.com), which features shokupan and other Japanese baked goods.