Diotima Bakehouse owner Kian Moltaji didn’t set out to become internet famous.
When the 33-year-old classically-trained baker started posting videos that showed him making high-end confections like castella cake, whipped white chocolate ganache, and gateau breton, he was still trying to secure a lease for his new Mission Viejo bakery, which opened softly in May.
But along the way, he became a viral sensation, accruing hundreds of thousands of fans on Instagram and TikTok at @kianthechef, and even more views on each one of his bakes.
“I don’t think of myself as a budding influencer or someone who ever wanted to conquer Instagram,” he says of his newfound niche fame, which took off in 2022 after a 10-second video on how to clarify stock for consommé went viral. Yet algorithms and engagement are hardly his passions. Noting his obsession with food as a child, he says that “ever since I was seven or eight, I wanted a bakery or restaurant.”
Decades later his childhood fantasy would come to fruition.
Born in Los Angeles, Moltaji and his family moved to Terhran, Iran when he was little more than a toddler, relocated to Central Florida for a spell, and then escaped the sunshine state by returning to Los Angeles. After attending UCLA, Moltaji put aside notions of graduate school and instead enrolled at École Ferrandi, a professional Parisian cooking school, where he honed his baking prowess in the French tradition.
After years working as a private chef for a gaggle of notables, Moltaji quietly opened Mission Viejo’s Diotima Bakehouse, named after an ancient Greek character in Plato’s “Symposium” (a nod to Moltaji’s interest in philosophy, which he studied at UCLA), isn’t your typical Orange County bakery; at Diotima, it’s all about the bakes.
An L-shaped counter anchors the cozy space, featuring a crème patissière-filled tarts studded with raspberries, mini pistachio Paris-Brests (a crispy pâte à choux split in half horizontally and…
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