The Best Sugar High on Capitol Hill
April 16, 2025 | 1 min to read
In Seattle, Kelly Miao, owner of Kemi Dessert Bar, is delighting patrons with desserts that blend technical skill and Asian flavors. Drawing from her experiences in New York City fine dining, she creatively infuses classic treats with elements like mango sticky rice. Miao's journey began in Long Island, where her passion for baking was sparked, leading to the inception of her innovative Capitol Hill bakery that embodies the joy of dessert.
Meet the NYC Pastry Chef Serving Joy in Seattle
Maybe it’s the butter, the cream, the sugar, or the audacity of putting iconic Asian flavors like mango sticky rice into rice crispy treats and somehow making it work… Whatever it is, Kelly Miao, owner of Kemi Dessert Bar, seems to understand the alchemy and finesse of dessert craft better than most.
At her newly opened bakery, she’s taken everything she’s learned from a career in New York City fine dining and plated desserts and brought it to Capitol Hill in the form of Asian-inspired guilty pleasures verified to spark joy. The results are inventive, artful, and backed by the kind of technical skill that separates good from GOAT.
From the Cronut to Capitol Hill
When most Asian kids her age were at Kumon, Miao was in the kitchen. It started in Long Island, where Ina Garten reruns evolved into experimenting with boxed cake mix, and eventually, Miao was baking anything and everything at every opportunity.
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