I heard about Osio for the first time after one of our visits to Korea, as I was searching online, trying to find where in Lausanne, Switzerland, we could enjoy some Korean food and snacks until going back the next year. Among some restaurant options for bibimbap, Korean fried chicken or gimbap, I was delighted to discover that Osio, a Japanese pastry shop located in Lausanne-Malley, was adding Korean patbingsu along with other flavours of Japanese kakigori to its summer menu.
Since then, I have visited a few times, ordering a bingsu at the end of summer, and having taiyaki, akin to the Korean bunggeopang, on the way to work on a winter day. At the end of the year, I visited again on the occasion of a Korean cultural weekend organised at the shop on December 6 and 7, during which I got to discover more about Osio and its ties to Korea.
"Osio started in 2015 in Lausanne market. I studied at the Kyoto pastry school and worked for some time in Japan before moving to Switzerland, I then started in small markets and finally opened by shop in 2022", explains Osio owner Kenyoung Park. “Although my products are mainly Japanese-inspired, my own identity makes it so that Korean culture blends naturally with it. Even if I worked in Japan, I am Korean, so it is only natural for my cultural influences to mix in. Recent Korean desserts are really delicious, with textures very appreciated in Korea and very popular these days; I would like to bring these sensations and let people discover them here. I would like to introduce not only traditional desserts, but also contemporary Korean pastry, with its unique taste and textures. My objective is simply to offer good desserts to our visitors, and to welcome them with interesting ideas and events; this is how I see and share my culture.”
As I arrived to the shop, my attention first got caught by the tent sitting right outside the door with its tteokbokki and odeng (fish cake skewers) stand, giving a glimpse of a Korean market in the Swiss street.
Going inside, more food options were presented with gimbap and sotteok-sotteok (소떡소떡): skewers with tteok (rice cake) and sausage.
Next to the shop entrance, a table was set with various jars and their description poster, introducing Korean marinated vegetables called Jangajji (장아찌).
Osio owner Kenyoung Park adds: "A friend of mine, passionate about gimbap and who has her own dedicated workshop, prepared gimbap and tteokbokki; another friend from Jeonju, who studied in Swiss hospitality school, prepared her specialty jangajji; one more friend spent hours at home caramelising sugar and offered to prepare dalgona... my role was only to gather these people around what they could and enjoyed doing, and this is how the event took shape."
Although the place was very lively, with many clients having the shop's pastries and coffee with family or friends, or just visiting for the event, we could also hear the gayageum being played by a musician. Next to him, visitors could buy dalgona, the Korean sweets introduced worldwide by the series Squid Game, and watch it being made; they could also play a few Korean traditional games.
"Many people are taking interest in Korean culture, but it is often seen through a select few broadcasted elements. Over the last years, I noticed that more and more clients were looking into discovering Korean cooking, which shows a growing and more diverse interest. I feel like further than K-pop and K-dramas, there are still so many aspects of our culture to introduce, and that there are endless possibilities", Osio owner Kenyoung Park concludes.
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