After a much-ballyhooed launch party back in September, we were waiting, waiting, waiting for the sparkling new Boule Atelier to open. Sure, the macarons and chocolates were still available at the original spot, but we were most stoked with the idea that Boule 2.0 would actually be offering boule on its daily menu. Baguette, batard, pain au levain—oh, we could go on and on. We expected no less than the sublime from a place that not only bears the Franco-falutin’ moniker but has taken this many years since its inception to bring bread to the people.

Enter Hidefumi Kubota. The newly-appointed executive baker overseeing Boule’s entire carb-heaven of bread and viennoiserie may seem an unexpected choice. His very stoic, very Japanese person hardly fits whatever rotund, jovial, French image we may have had of a boulanger—although we did witness him play a mean Guitar Hero riff on a loaf of bread at the launch party.

This is Hide’s (as friends call him) first gig outside of Japan. He and wife Mariko just arrived from Osaka at the end of July to work for chef David Myers at Sona—he as the primary baker, she as a pastry cook. Hide’s classically trained in French and German bread-making, but entirely so in his homeland. While it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that a lot rests on his shoulders, Hide is up to the task, working beyond the already insane baker-ly hours (“normal day goes from 3 a.m. to 5 p.m."), sampling flours (“French flour makes most sense but it’s too hard to get. I’ll probably go with an American organic”), comparatively tasting the competition (“I tried every bakery…hard breads are just too hard”) and working against the Western palate (“American people have a misunderstanding about sugar, the difference between sugary and flavorful. I prefer not to use so much sugar because it takes all the flavor of the flour in bread”)— all while helping the launch of both Atelier and Comme Ça.

With roots in classic technique, Hide’s greatest assets are his creativity and an inclination toward fusion—something that was immediately apparent when tofu bread and savory rolls infused with chai spice started popping up for Sona’s bread service. As Boule almost single-handedly upped the fab factor in the business of bakeries, aesthetics are also constantly on the brain, “Chef [Myers] and I always talk about design. How can we make it more modern? It has to be tasty, yes, but also something that people are excited to see and want to eat right away.”

We sneaked a preview of that excitement in croissants shaped sexily as cones or like a book with layers of chocolate between each buttery leaf. And his fougasse aux lardons is not only sculptural but seriously “tasty,” with smoky chunks of bacon embedded in the svelte lattice design. It’s certain to be a signature piece for Boule Atelier—and the guaranteed ruination of your carbo-willpower.

The pain and viennoiserie menus will expand at Boule while Hide continues to supply bread for Sona and Comme Ça. Something like quiche should also show up at the Atelier in the future “to reflect the cheese store at Comme Ça.” In the meantime, Hide confides that he’s eating Mexican food every chance he gets—“It’s super expensive in Japan.” And while he would normally work off all the bread and tacos biking around town, the bicycle that he’s had since he was 14 was stolen in the first two weeks that he was here. “I parked it in front of my apartment….but Chef gave me his bike.”

Welcome to L.A., Hide.

Jiyeon Yoo is Restaurants editor for Metromix Los Angeles.