Zumbo

296 Darling Street, Balmain, 2040. (02) 9810 7318
Adriano Zumbo has been the talk of the town since his appearance on Masterchef, but after a visit to his Sydney shop and a tasting of his wares, I’m more than happy to admit, all the hype is justified. The man is a genius and this is surely the best patisserie in Australia.

I’ve been to Sydney for work several times in the last year and every time I’ve boarded the plane from Melbourne I’ve promised myself that this is it. This is the visit when I’ll finally make it to Zumbo. But it’s location – at Balmain – as always left it just out of reach, when all my meetings are in the CBD.

But on this occasion I decided to go for the weekend. So all bets were off.

First stop was the patisserie. This simple, minimalist and tiny shop is such a humble welcome to the treasures inside. The first thing that hits you when you look into the fridge is the colours – the amazing, vibrant, beautiful colours. The second thing that hits you is the shapes and structures. Little tiny works of art stuck together with egg whites, sugars, chocolates and all sorts of other methods.

There are tarts, cakes, mousses, puddings and slices. And in an adjacent display is a mountain of perfect macarons.

I spent around $40 at the cake shop, picking up two cakes. The first was Dr Apple, consisting of pistachio dacquoise, apple cider jelly, vanilla crème Chantilly, calvados cooked apples, green apple mousse ($7.90) and a Charlotte Full, consisting of olive oil mousse with rhubarb ripple, passionfruit crème,  biscuit macarons and fresh berries ($7.90).

I then chose a selection of macarons, including buttered popcorn, raspberry, coconut and pandan, blueberry and lavender, rice pudding and caramel. The absolute standouts were the coconut pandan, blueberry lavender and raspberry, but they were all fabulous. I don’t even know how to describe them – they were all perfectly formed, perfectly risen and struck just the right note between crispy and chewy. The flavours reminded me of Jelly Belly jelly beans, in that the flavours had a level of perfection that seemed impossible and all were so clearly sharp and identifiable.

We then wandered around the corner to Zumbo’s chocolate shop to taste what they had in store. We tasted several different varieties and all were pleasing, although my companions thought the chocolate covered salt and vinegar crisps were a little odd. I didn’t mind them- I love chocolate with salt.  The other standout were some of the strange creations Adriano had set up for Easter, including an entire fried breakfast, in a frying pan mind, entirely made of chocolate. Or an entire chicken, filled with eggs, also made of chocolate.

Both of these places are worth a visit, and are doors apart so there’s no need to miss one or the other.