Adriano Zumbo Patissier

This entry was due prior to Christmas, but things were so whirlwind then that I’ve deferred the entry until now!

So as I was making the mad-dash that is Christmas shopping, I decided to finally head to Balmain for the first time to figure out what Adriano Zumbo was all about. When I first arrived in Sydney, I actually made a call to his shop to apply for a job there! The funniest part was, I didn’t even know I was speaking to the chef himself! The conversation was really quite embarrassing for me.

I’ve read quite a bit about his pastries, and googling around, you will read of many Sydney foodbloggers who have rave reviews on his creations. The patissier being in Balmain however, has always been a bit of a deterrent for me. But this day, I decided to make the trek.

The shopfront… filled with newspaper and magazine clippings!

Besides the overhanging signboard, it’s easy to walk past the shop without knowing because it’s been totally camouflaged by the onslaught of newspapers review cuttings on the windowpanes!

Narrow “gallery” with a string of people pondering and deciding on their would-be purchases. The shop is quite tiny, and there’s a sort of silent-reverence reverberating all around as everyone eyes the beautiful cakes on display, and darting their eyes across whenever someone finally decides on their purchase. The counterstaff must be amused each day, looking on at customers with such intensity in their eyes.

Voila! The desserts in all its glory! The colors, the neatness, the glowing in the dark… it was really quite pretty.

Pretty puffy macarons!! The colors were vibrant and scary at the same time…

Ah, the highly sought after macarons. I know it’s all real pretty, but a part of me knows that it’s coloring at work. And for those who don’t know, I find food coloring quite scary.

Anyway, the macrons are decently-sized (read: not tiny money-sucking ones from Bakerzin and Canale) and actually fairly-priced at $1.80 per piece. The rate is usually $2 a piece (in any currency; in other words, I’ve paid 2euros for a single piece before. gah!) so Zumbo is fair.

A snap of the macaron “menu” so that I can figure out the flavours when I get home!

His summer collection: feullitine, mango & jasmine, finger bun, pineapple & ginger, yoghurt & chilli, blue cheese, pink grapefruit, liquorice, forest berry, coconut pandan, green apple and sticky date pudding.

Dr. Apple ($7.70) – Pistachio dacquoise, apple cider jelly, vanilla creme chantilly, calvados cooked apples, green apple mouse.

The cutest looking pastry ever! I have to say I don’t understand half the ingredients, but this looks absolutely quirky.

Have a chat Kai! ($7.80) – Coconut dacquoise, lychee jelly, coconut mousse, coconut crunch, fresh strawberries and lychees.

Lychees and coconuts and strawberries are a simply tantalizing combination. It’s what summer is all about, really!

Sunny cloud ($7) – Pate sable, lime jelly, yoghurt creme fraiche, lime curd and italian meringue. This looks like a puff of smoke!

Cassius ($7.80) – Chocolate biscuit macaron, blackcurrent chocolate cremeux, chocolate plates with sea salt, dark chocolate chantilly.

Miss Marple cheesecake ($7.50) – Orange cheesecake with orange strawberry compote, cream cheese creme legere with a crepe & maple glaze.

Where’s the cheese? ($7.60) – Blue cheese mousse, fig, raisin & pear creameaux, pear & vanilla bavaroise, walnut biscuit.

Craigie bam! ($7.50) – chocolate dacquoise, chocolate sabayon with salted caramel debris, chocolate caramel creameux, caramel mousse.

Zumbo the kid ($7.50) – Vegemite bavaroise, peanut butter creme legere, raspberry jelly, chocolate peanut glacage, peanut feullitine, flourless chocolate biscuit.

Framboise millefeuille ($7.50) – Raspberry coulis, biscuit jaconde, raspberry creme mascarpone & caramalised puff pastry.

Yuzu no a nothing! ($8.95) – Biscuit macaron, lime and pineapple compote with mint and yuzu creme legere.

Wheely wildly Wendy ($7.60) – Fresh roasted peach in a tonka bean creme legere sandwiched between two almond dacquoise disks & rolled in almond crumbles.

My stash! I took quite a bit of time deciding. Well, I took even MORE time taking the photos of course. Was quite embarrassing, but all for the sake of pretty pictures on this blog! I think the staff was quite used to people coming in and gawking at the cakes. On a sidenote, I find it ridiculous when stores have “No Photography” rules. That’s just stupid. If I’m gonna copy your stuff, I’m not gonna have to take a photo. On the plus side, you actually get free publicity when people spread the pictures around. Unless of course you’re worried you’re gonna get crap reviews. At which point, the last thing you should be worried about is people taking pictures of your stuff.

Anyway, the girl (I forgot her name – sorry!) was really sweet, because she offered to keep my stash in the fridge while I went shopping around Balmain. Good customer service a plus! You ask why I was so kiasu to buy first instead of later? Because besides being a Singaporean, while I was standing there taking photos, someone bought the last of a cake that I wanted to buy! So I figured I better get my act on quicker rather than later.

Boxes and boxes of goodies…

Ah, I forgot to take a picture of it on display. But here’s the rice pudding eclair. He likes rice pudding so it looked like a good choice. Erm, it was okay… ? I dunno, it’s hard to be blown away by rice pudding right? Anyway, he liked it. I thought it was a bit too sweet, which again, could explain why he liked it more than I did.

The crowning jewel! I knew I had to get this when i saw it. The fact that it had the Japanese characters for “yu-zu” amused me to no end. I wonder how he wrote it! Stencil? And what did he write it with? Hmm.

This was huuuge. The one thing that Thad pointed out was that most of his stuff are larger than most patissiers. On one hand, it’s pretty great for the consumer, because we’ve all been there when there’s a delicious pastry and only about two mouthfuls of it. It’s pretty good value for money. On the other hand, perhaps pastries should be kept small and dainty? I’m probably gonna get smacked for saying that, but hey, I’m just saying. Anyway, I’m the last person to be complaining that a slice of cake is too big.

Looks pretty decadent eh? I preferred this to the eclair. I think it was my favourite of the three that I bought. First the good stuff: I love yuzu. And there was mint and lime thrown in, as well as pineapple – very tangy combination, very fragrant. Which turned out to be a downside too – it was a very complicated pastry! Not in the complex and sublime sense but just… complicated. And the mint leaves were too big! I would have preferred it grinded in, but I actually had mint leaves stuck in my teeth. Kinda weird. And very overwhelming when you stumble upon one. The biscuit macaron gave it a crunchiness, which I liked.

The Wheely wildly Wendy. I’m surprised it stayed upright throughout the busride home! Looks quite pretty huh?

I thought this was just okay. Loved the almond crumbles, couldn’t really taste the peach, and the tonka bean creme legere lent an interesting texture. To be honest, I can’t really remember much of it anymore!

Clockwise from top-right: Sticky date pudding, yoghurt & chilli, pink grapefruit, fingerbun, pineapple & ginger, feullitine.

The jewel-colored gems! Having had Pierre Herme macarons has tragically ruined my macaron-eating experience. It has also set unrealistic expectations that have so far been met with severe disappointment.

Now that the caveat is out of the way, let’s see how these babies faired eh?

The flavours look interesting enough but… does it suffer from being too interesting? The good stuff: the texture of the macarons was actually not too bad! In fact, I’d probably rate it better than all the macarons I’ve had so far, apart from PH’s of course. It managed to achieve the biscuit/cake texture-cross that makes macarons so addictive. It was of a good plump size with a generous amount of filling! Not the anorexic versions at Bakerzine and Canale (you can tell I’m really not impressed by those eh?).

The taste test: Yes, the flavours tasted very interesting, but doesn’t quite have the depth of PH’s. Don’t get me wrong, they’re GREAT by all standards, but I’m comparing it to my favourite here. Very original flavours and innovative combination. But I remember when I first tasted PH’s rose-flavoured macaron, the scent of the rose permeated through my nostrils and lingered at the back of the throat. Yes, it was THAT magical!

Not quite with Zumbo’s. They tasted great on the palatte, but that was about it. No sublime aftertaste. Apart from the yogurt and chilli of course, which left quite a bite! The fingerbun generated a lot of interest, but apart from being stuffed with an ornate amount of filling consisting of raisins and dessicated coconut, I’m not sure what the fuss was about. The pineapple & ginger was true to flavour, and even though I hate ginger, I thought it was a combination that worked. The feullitine was basically ferrero rocher, which as common as it is, was still yummy.

Green apple, fingerbun, forest berry, feullitine, sticky date pudding, pink grapefruit.

A repeat of some of the above flavours. The green apple was pretty good too, and gives a glimpse of what Dr. Apple might taste like I suppose. I’m happy I got two of the feullitine (the rocher one) because it was really good! The chocolate was rich, and the hazelnut bits were crunchy and fragrant. I like. Liquorice was available but I traded that away for another flavour, which I regret now. I should have been more experimental and got one anyway. Maybe next time.

Adriano Zumbo is a very exciting shop. I don’t confess to have been to a lot of patissiers in Sydney, but Zumbo imight be the one to beat. I have a sneaky feeling the success of Zumbo isn’t entirely based on the taste of his food. They are good, but can definitely be better. What he has been very clever with is his presentation and marketing. From the naming of his pastries (after his staff, regular customers, experience from his past), the ingredients that he uses (blue cheese, vegemite anyone?), to the surgically-inspired “The Younger Years” dessert, his creativity is undeniable. On the one hand, one can say that these are distractions to make the food seem better than it actually is, but you could also argue the other way that they add to the overall dining experience. Either way, there’s no denying that he’s already a creative genius at 27. And with a bit more time, I can’t wait to see what he’s up to next.

Oh, did I mention he’s pretty hot too?

Adriano Zumbo Patissier
Add: 296 Darling Street, Balmain, Sydney, NSW 2041
Tel: (02) 9810 7318
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 8am-6pm; Sun 8am-4pm.