Chef Laurence Louie held a flattened piece of dough in his palm, scooped a pile of roasted pork on top and pinched the sides of the dough to seal it into a ball. Pinch, pleat. Pinch, pleat.
The making of dozens of bao buns is a daily ritual for Louie and his team at his Quincy restaurant Rubato HK Café. He said the steamed buns with sweet or savory fillings are a mainstay of Rubato’s menu, a homage to the food he grew up eating. And when Louie was cast on season 23 of “Top Chef,” he wanted to cook what he knew and represent the community that raised him.
“So much of why I think cooking has spoken to me is because that’s a language in itself to be able to express caring, love, support, my own identity and all these things captured into — like a bao,” Louie said.
Louie said he basically grew up in Rubato, working the cash register as a teen back when it was a bakery called Contempo. His mom, Joyce Chang, opened it because she and her rock band, of the same name, needed a place to practice. The building had a basement…