Desserts/Pastries/Chocolate SYD & MEL

[pastrygirl]

Looking forward to my first trip to Australia in a few weeks, and would welcome any suggestions for restaurants with FABULOUS desserts, and great high-end pastry or chocolate shops in Sydney and Melbourne. In MEL I'll be staying in Carlton & relying on public transport/taxi, haven't booked for SYD yet.

I'm a pastry chef looking for inspiration, surprises, delights - of course I'll have to try a traditional pavlova or two, but am more interested in what the best & brightest & wackiest & fanciest pastry chefs in Australia are doing right now.

Thanks!

[lamington]

Looking forward to my first trip to Australia in a few weeks, and would welcome any suggestions for restaurants with FABULOUS desserts, and great high-end pastry or chocolate shops in Sydney and Melbourne.  In MEL I'll be staying in Carlton & relying on public transport/taxi, haven't booked for SYD yet. 

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I'm not well informed on the restaurant front, though Vue de Monde often impresses with their high-end desserts according to many Melbourne bloggers. Attica (Ripponlea) as well. Both venues are in the avant-garde/innovative zone of gastronomy in Melbourne.

Australia is very poorly served for high-end patisserie from retail outlets. Indeed, I'd say that we fail almost completely on that front. In Sydney, Adriano Zumbo has made a very good name for himself, but his product is very very similar to Pierre Hermé and I'm led to believe that form outweighs substance too often in Zumbo's approach. I believe there is newer, more promising place of interest in Sydney, but the name escapes me.

So, restaurants are the place for high-end pastry, but you still need to choose very carefully.

Developments in the chocolate scene are a little better at retail level. I can't comment on Sydney, but in Melbourne, Ganache (South Yarra) is definitely worth a look, as is Monsieur Truffe (Collingwood/Fitzroy), and some product from Koko Black or Cacao can be interesting. Nothing earth-shattering, mind you (Ganache is probably your best bet). There's also Haigh's, an Adelaide company with shops in Melbourne and Sydney -- their chocolate isn't high class, but they do an interesting range of soft fondant fillings which are very uncommon, or just well executed.

Edited January 29, 2009 by lamington (log)

[Shinboners]

I'm a pastry chef looking for inspiration, surprises, delights - of course I'll have to try a traditional pavlova or two, but am more interested in what the best & brightest & wackiest & fanciest pastry chefs in Australia are doing right now.

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It's a shame that you didn't arrive in Melbourne about six months ago. Interlude, which is now closed, used to offer a dessert degustation.

Anyway, I'd recommend that you try Bistro Guillaume (www.bistrogulliaume.com.au). Phillipa Sibley does the desserts there, and whilst you'll look at the menu and think, "it doesn't look too special", it's her level of execution that takes things to another level. If you go there late enough, and hang around long enough, and ask nicely enough, you might even get to chat to her after service is finished.

Depending on when you're in town, keep an eye out on what Andrew McConnell is doing. He's just closed Three One Two, but you can check out a more simplified version of his desserts at Cumulus Inc. He will be opening a new restaurant, Cutler And Co., sometime in 2009.

[gap]

For chocolates in Melbourne I would second Ganache (which also has a few very good chocolate based petit gateaux). Cacao is good as well. Koko Black has some interesting things. The Haigh's store in the Block Arcade is interesting to visit - as lamington mentioned they have some centers that you don't see too often anymore and they are also the only chocolate retailer in Australia that makes their chocolate starting from the bean.

[pastrygirl]

I thought I'd finally follow up on my trip. I loved both Melbourne and Sydney and hope I can go back sometime, maybe even get out of your fine cities and see the rest of the country. I love summer so was happy to have fresh peaches, strawberries, and cherries every day.

My main reason for being in MEL was to take four days of chocolate classes at Savour school in Brunswick. Lots of tasting going on there, the classes were fun and informative and I am glad I went - I took home 3-1/2 kg of chocolate, which made a lot of people happy. I did get a chance to visit both Koko Black and Cacao, I found Koko Black's flavors a little more pronounced, a few of the Cacao chocolates didn't come through on flavor as well. For dinners, I loved Verge, even if it was a little bit slow between courses, but my server brought me some food magazines b/c I was dining alone and recommended a really nice wine. Dessert was something really light and fruity, strawberry I think. Nicely done. Also dined at Bistro Guillaume, where the French servers seemed to have decided I was an imbecile (I really do regret having tipped. I think it was because I was expecting an Aussie accent and was confused by the French one when ho offered to send the sommelier over. It went downhill after that). Peach melba for dessert with ginger (?) ice cream was simple and good and looked pretty. Another night, the bartenders at Ginger Boy convinced me to try the tofu cheesecake, but it was a little too much like regular cheesecake for me, nobody's fault but my own for being swayed.

In SYD, I stopped in at Quay for a couple of desserts one night. The first was all light and tropical and perfumy, with coconut and lychee and vanilla and maybe rosewater. The second was the seven (8?) texture chocolate tart, which was super intense and kept me up all night after eating it. When I told the server I could only discern five textures, he humored me and took me into the kitchen to have the sous chef go through what all the textures were. That was cool. Also went to est. for the tasting menu. Nice food, especially liked the foie gras with beet/raspberry puree and sauternes jelly and a nice buttery prawn raviolo (separate courses, not together). First dessert was 'black forest' which was cherry granita, chocolate jelly, and kirsch whipped cream. A nice take on it. My second dessert was the passion fruit souffle. I love passion fruit but maybe I'm not a big souffle fan. It was a bit eggy and I would have liked more passion fruit. But the petit fours were nice, I'd like to know how they made the olive oil and vanilla jelly, it was quite surprising.

Thanks again for the recommendations.

Andrea

[Shinboners]

Thanks for that report pastrygirl. I hope you had a great time in Australia and that you'll return soon.

I'm sorry to hear that your night at Bistro Guillaume wasn't as good as it should have been.