Stress baking? Then you need to try this calming new bread technique

LOS ANGELES - Pastry chef Dyan Ng's pan-roasted honey brioche isn't just new; it's revolutionary. She created it for the brunch menu at Auburn "to give people something different that they've never tried before."

"As a cook, I don't want to be showy, but I always want to do something different," Ng says.

Ng cites Auburn and its surroundings as her inspiration. When Eric Bost was opening the restaurant on Melrose Avenue, he called Ng, then the pastry chef at Michael Mina's restaurant in Baltimore's Four Seasons hotel. Bost said, "Hey, I'm looking for a pastry chef. Do you know any?" Ng immediately replied, "Yeah, me, chef."

She was excited for the opportunity to return to L.A., where she had moved from the Philippines as a child. She stayed to start her culinary career after high school before going to Las Vegas to cook in the kitchens of Alain Ducasse, Francois Payard and Guy Savoy. Those years of intense training in French techniques gave Ng the skills and freedom to create original takes on classics, like this brioche.

Ng first developed a formula for a milkless brioche extra rich in butter and eggs so it wouldn't taste like pain au lait. And though the brioche was delicious, she said, "It was just a delicious French bread." She then caramelized the top of the loaf with honey butter while it baked but wanted the bread to be more tender all the way