Sweet talk with Adriano Zumbo

Australia's favourite food blogger, Not Quite Nigella, aka Lorraine Elliott, spends a day with patissier Adriano Zumbo to learn the secrets of his sweet success.

The first time I came into contact with Adriano Zumbo's creations was in November 2007. I remember being so excited when I saw them in the store that we drove them home nursing them gingerly like newborns. We took them to my parents' house eager to try them and I then rushed home to write about them. It seems like eons ago and now Zumbo is a household name (and not just with the food obsessed in Australia). So four years later, what is life like for Australia's most recognised patissier and torturer of MasterChef contestants? Is it all cakes, macarons, models in bikinis, sports cars and relaxing? The answer to that is yes, yes, sometimes, yes and no.

It is 7am on Friday morning and Adriano Zumbo slips on his shoes in the lounge room of his Balmain house. The 29-year-old is currently preparing to open a new place in The Star (formerly Star City), participate in the World Chef Showcase, be a major drawcard at Masterchef Live and has now been lassoed into Macaron Day, the yearly macaron extravaganza that coincides with his birthday where all of his stores carry 60 flavours of macarons and nothing else. He is the boy from Coonamble in country NSW, who arrived in Sydney at age 15, from a town of under 3,000 to a city of 3 million.

And if you're wondering, his house is kept tidy – the only notable exception is the kitchen which is being used as a temporary test lab with labelled boxes of ingredients on the island in the centre. The patissier is getting ready to leave for his day at work and before anything can be done, he must have his cup of coffee…

His first visit of the day is the hub of the whole operation, the Rozelle kitchen on Terry Street, where thousands of macarons are made a day. They're aiming for about 20,000 macarons today, reinforcements for the busy weekend ahead. As well as these, there are cakes, breads, pastries, chocolates and general sweets, from salt and vinegar chips coated in chocolate to nougat to 'macaroni road' (rocky road made with macarons – oh so good, just don't look at the calories per slice). These are then distributed to one of his four stores ready to be bought and consumed by hungry sweet craving mouths or doled out by people seeking favour with others.

The factory shop is quiet at this hour save for the occasional customer buying coffee. The eating area in the factory has a large window and a few bar stools so that people can perch and watch the chefs making and filling macarons and creating cakes or try and catch a glimpse of Zumbo. The last time I was there with him and he was giving us a macaron making masterclass I looked up and saw a crowd eagerly pressed up against the windows and mobile phones taking photos of him…

First things first; he walks around the kitchen to greet the staff. He starts on the second floor which is where the chocolate room is located. Chocolatier Karen slices up pieces of the macaroni road. The kitchen goes through 11 tonnes of chocolate a year and currently it is all either Callebaut or Cocoa Barry, although there is a move to use Cocoa Barry exclusively, and for Zumbo to become an ambassador for them. He is somewhat wary of endorsements or ambassadorships, but says that to be included in the list of Cocoa Barry ambassadors is flattering because many of the other chocolatiers or patissiers have a lot more experience than him. He also likes the idea of being loyal to a company…

He walks around and inspects the cakes that were being prepped to go out to the stores and are delivered around 11am-12pm. He remarks on where changes need to be made and looks at each display carefully, eyeing any changes or anything that needs rectifying. There's a quick visit to the bakery next door where the heavenly buttery pastries are made (I have to drag myself out of there). This was the original kitchen when he had the one Balmain store.

The three office employees arrive at 7:45am, including Zumbo's sister Rosalba, an office administrator and an operations manager, and they sit in an office upstairs behind a partially closed door. At this point they field offers and requests for his time. Zumbo does an average of 2-3 events a month and these are often when corporates ask him to come along for special staff events. They can be legal and accountancy firms and banks and he may be asked to speak, interact with people at a party or, in one case, judge the items made by people in the company. That sort of thing can pay well, but he says that he enjoys it. When I first met him he was shy and I ask him if doing things like that makes him uncomfortable, but he says that it doesn't anymore and, if anything, it is a good thing as it helps open him up. Also people are very happy to talk to him about food and it's a topic he really enjoys talking about.

We're soon back on the road and this time we are headed to Cheeky Chocolate Cafe, a newish cafe in Strathfield where Zumbo is a consultant. He and his chef devise cakes, macarons and chocolates to sell at the two-month-old cafe. He visits the cafe a few times a week to iron out any problems, try out any of the staff's experiments and oversee any issues they may have.

His head chef Tom shows him an issue with the new self-cleaning oven that appears to be leaking. It is here that Zumbo eats his first food of the day and it's a 'Becka Dome' filled with apricot jelly, almond crumble and pistachio brulee covered in marshmallow. The cakes that are designed for Cheeky are simpler than the ones bearing his name as they have a smaller kitchen and they come in straight round, square or rectangular shapes. I try some of the Becka Dome and it has a lovely crunchiness with several soft 'moussey' layers, which provides a nice textural contrast.

It's time for working out the costings for the desserts. Each dessert must be dissected down to the cost of salt, packaging and the time needed for someone to sell it. He sits down in the main cafe area, which is closed at this time, and works out the costs with Tom.

The costings complete, Zumbo reaches for a non-cake breakfast, which he eats while discussing two creations, one by pastry chef Mey Mey and another from another pastry chef who isn't there at the moment. The first dessert is too salty – there is salt in the salted caramel and then in another layer and Zumbo is direct with his feedback. With Mey Mey's creation, he likes the idea of the multi-layered jellies at offset angles but says that with a cup of dessert, the person eating it should be able to dig their spoon into it and get a taste of everything in one spoonful.

To test for the flavour he runs the cup under hot water and removes it from the cup and then he and Tom try it. The latte panna cotta is a hit, while the coffee jelly and nuts have a bitterness to them thanks to the coffee.

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