How Japan Made the Cheesecake Its Own.

If you love desserts, Japan is a must-travel food destination. Even the convenience store desserts are incredibly delicious. Learn one of the country’s favorites – the Japanese cheesecake history.

Brief History of Cheesecake & Japanese Cheesecake History

Brief History of Cheesecake
The history of cheesecake dates as far back as 776 BC in Ancient Greece when athletes were fed cheesecake for sustenance in the Olympic Games. The recipe combined flour, wheat, honey, and cheese to create a pudding-style cake.

Later, the Romans spread the recipe across Europe. As for the modern baked cheesecake, food historians believe that originated from medieval Poland. And it was Polish immigrants that took the cake over to the US.

The invention of cream cheese came in 1872 in New York which sparked the plethora of cream cheese recipes, including cheesecake.

Cheesecake in Japan
Japan was first introduced to American-style cheesecake after World War II by American soldiers. In fact, it was during this Showa Period (from 1926 to 1989) that soft cottage cheese and cream cheese came to Japan.

Then, in the 1960s, Japanese chef Tomotaro Kuzuno traveled to Berlin where he tasted kasukuchen, a type of German cheesecake.

Back in Japan, he combined this German-style cheesecake and the American-style cheesecake to create the first Japanese cheesecake.

Kuzuno mixed together cream cheese, butter, sugar, and eggs. Compared to the American version, this had less cheese and less sugar for a less sweet cake with fewer calories. Then, he separated the egg whites and egg yolks and whipped them separately before combing. Finally, the batter was baked in a bain-marie.

The result: an incredibly fluffy, light, airy, wobbly souffle/chiffon-like cheesecake. Iconically Japanese.

Japanese Cheesecake Variations
From its inception, Japanese cheesecake grew in popularity over the decades. By the 1990s, it took off around the globe.

Beyond souffle cheesecakes, Japan is also known for its rare cheesecake and baked cheese tarts. Rare cheesecake is the Japanese version of the classic Western no-bake cheesecake. And in true Japanese fashion, it is made light, creamier, less sweet, and tastier. Baked cheese tarts are perhaps the most recent trend in Japanese cheesecakes with its warm oozing sweet cheese filling in little tartlets.