Adriano Zumbo, Balmain

There was a definite spring in my step this morning. After a week of wind and rain, Sydney woke to a surprise burst of morning sunshine. Today was the launch of the latest collection of seasonal desserts by Adriano Zumbo, an event that appeared to give even Mother Nature something to smile about.

A newly revamped website details Zumbo's recent return from a two-month stay in France where he relished working in the kitchen of pastry demi-god Pierre Hermé. The title of the new collection is appropriately titled "40 Days and 40 Nights in Paris".

Many of the desserts have working titles, their final names still in the process of being decided. I do like the fact that one of the cakes (not pictured) is Zumbo's birth date -- and not just because he's a fellow Scorpio! Counterboy Charles thought this was an ideal way for Zumbo to get plenty of birthday presents this year!

Several desserts had already sold out by the time we arrived, but here follows a virtual tour for your viewing pleasure.


! $7.90
Smoked rice orange brulee, violet curd,
pate sable with mandarin & ruby grapefruit segments


........ $8.20
Hazelnut meringue, anzac moisture,
mint chocolate disc, vanilla apple tatin chantilly,
apple tatin compote, isomalt caramel


Z $7.90
Olive oil biscuit, olive oil ganache,
vanilla candied Kalamata olives, lemon & olive oil creme,
vanilla lemon creme legere, jumbo gumbo jelly


Just 2 fingers Tiger! $7.80
Corn, saffron & vanilla custard, vanilla brulee,
chocolate custard, yuzu creme, sable crunch terrain


P $7.75
Mandarin mousse, tonka bean brulee, pain d'epice,
sour cream jelly, almond ginger crunch disc


X $7.90
Pine nut gianduja mousse, dark chocolate creme,
pate feulletage caramelise, sacher sponge


Escape from a Columbia Rainforest $8.00 (gluten-free)
Flourless chocolate sponge, dark chocolate fizzy disc,
cherry cola jelly, cherry cola syrup, chocolate sabayon mousse


This season's macarons $2.00
Blackcurrant
Rice pudding
Rhubarb crumble
Salted butter caramel
Mandarin & tonka bean
Baklava
Chestnut and passionfruit
Toffee apple
Salted butter popcorn
Pine nut and gianduja
Quince
Tasmanian honey and walnut




Tarts


F $7.00
Gianduja ganache with caramel in a pate sable shell


H $7.80
Crumble cubes, acidic white chocolate ganache, roast quince,
rhubarb, dried figs, dates and dark chocolate quenelles


Sticky date teacake $16.00


Orange almond cake $15.00


Pain au chocolat $3.50
Crossiant $3.00


Pear and macadamia sticky buns $3.00
brioche fuelletage baked with a nut creme
and pear slices and caramel macadamias


D $17.00
Smoked toasted marshmallows and chocolate cake


S $17.00
Tomato, chocolate, olive oil upside down cake


Adriano Zumbo in France

Celebrating his recent travels in France, the shop window is decorated with a huge collage of photo souvenirs. I particularly love the photo above which is a cheesy "let me pose with my food" shot every food blogger can relate to!


Coonamble Star is Born

And whilst Zumbo has enjoyed plenty of press coverage as the hottest pastry pin-up, it's touching to see that it's his picture in a poster for The Land magazine that gets prime position.


Cake and hot chocolate

There's something deliciously indulgent about saying "I'll have one of everything" please.

Charles is delighted when Billy utters the magic phrase. "That's what I've been telling everyone to do all morning" he says, "but noone listens!"

Which is how six of us find ourselves trundling up the road to the the Adriano Zumbo Cafe Chocolat, a happy box full of treats soon to be unpacked onto plates by the ever-helpful staff.

As soon as we sit down in the courtyard however, the heavens open, as if Mother Nature has now decided to remind us this is in fact, a Winter Collection. We are not so easily dissuaded, and the six of us--Billy from A Table for Two, The Pom, Chocolatesuze, Noods, Bowb from Raging Yoghurt and I--shuffle and huddle under the shelter of eaves.


! $7.90
Smoked rice orange brulee, violet curd,
pate sable with mandarin & ruby grapefruit segments

The smoked rice orange brulee has us divided on its flavours. Without even reading the description, Bowb detects its smokiness. On the one hand, it tastes like someone accidently burnt the rice pudding. On the other, there's something so alluring about the contrast of the smoky rice pudding against the smooth violet curd, the buttery pate sable, the grittiness of rice grains and the fresh citrus of mandarin and ruby grapefruit.


X $7.90
Pine nut gianduja mousse, dark chocolate creme,
pate feulletage caramelise, sacher sponge

The pine nut millefeuille is an easy crowd pleaser. The pastry is crisp and flaky with a rich dark chocolate centre sandwiched between layers of gianduja mousse that has a distinct pine nut flavour.


P $7.75
Mandarin mousse, tonka bean brulee, pain d'epice,
sour cream jelly, almond ginger crunch disc



The P reminds us all of the Sputnik satellite. Its gingerbread flavour is a huge hit with chocolatesuze.


Just 2 fingers Tiger! $7.80
Corn, saffron & vanilla custard, vanilla brulee,
chocolate custard, yuzu creme, sable crunch terrain



Two striped eclairs perch on top of a rice crispy-studded biscuit ledge in the Just 2 Fingers, Tiger! The chocolate striped eclair holds a chocolate custard, but the real winner is the orange racing stripe that marks a decadent custard filling of corn, saffron and vanilla.


........ $8.20
Hazelnut meringue, anzac moisture,
mint chocolate disc, vanilla apple tatin chantilly,
apple tatin compote, isomalt caramel

The ....... continues the vertical disc theme that was last the Wheely Wildly Wendy. I make the fatal mistake of going for a huge chunk of the isomalt caramel. It's not until I chomp down on the luminous red toffee that I realise my jaw is stuck tight. We're not sure if today's humidity affected the caramel, or whether Zumbo was planning on giving you a dessert that lasted you literally for weeks, but the caramel exterior is guaranteed to give you lockjaw or possibly remove any new fillings as you attempt to prise your teeth apart.

The use of isomalt, a sugar substitute more commonly found in diet soft drinks, does intrigue me. Suze likens the use of peppermint to a Christmas candy cane, although the flavour of peppermint does sit at odds with the natural sweetness of apple.


Z $7.90
Olive oil biscuit, olive oil ganache,
vanilla candied Kalamata olives, lemon & olive oil creme,
vanilla lemon creme legere, jumbo gumbo jelly

Zumbo seems determined to surprise with his latest Collection and the Z is the biggest challenge of all. The look on all of our faces at the first taste of this one is priceless. There's an overwhelming sense of sour saltiness, like the salted plums favoured by Chinese grandmas the world over.

We deliberate over each layer and correctly identify the use of olive oil in the ganache, the biscuit and the creme legere. It's the strangest tasting-dessert but I end up quite liking this one, in a weird savoury fetish kind-of-way.


Escape from a Columbia Rainforest $8.00 (gluten-free)
Flourless chocolate sponge, dark chocolate fizzy disc,
cherry cola jelly, cherry cola syrup, chocolate sabayon mousse

The Escape from a Columbia Rainforest is perhaps the playful descendant of Zumbo the Kid. Stylised to resemble a cola can, the attention to detail is impressive, from the aluminium can shape of the cake, to the silver-painted chocolate ring pull and even the little indent where the supposed tab has been pushed in.


Cola can dissection

Bowb is entrusted with the most difficult task of can dissection, and her concerned pleas about "there's something really hard in here I just can't cut" is revealed when we finally get the cross-section "money shot".



A thick pool of cherry cola jelly and cherry cola syrup floods the plate as it's released from its cave made of chocolate. Flourless chocolate sponge and a chocolate sabayon mousse make this a dessert for the chocaholics. We like the sprinkle of cherry red powder that fizzes on the tongue like a cross between Pop Rocks and sherbet.


Dark hot chocolate $6

I chase away the afternoon wind with an intense dark hot chocolate, whilst Suze rugs up with her eggs and toast scarf (I want one!) and a toffee apple macaron.


Suze contemplates what to have next


The degustation


The demolition


The debris


Toffee apple macaron $2


Baklava macaron $2


Macarons $2 each

And because I believe in thorough research, my taste-testing continued after dinner with the new season's collection of macarons. The two most striking flavours are the baklava macaron and the toffee apple macaron.

The baklava macaron is for fans of rosewater syrup only, and whilst I like the idea of sandwiching a macaron with pastry, it struggles presentation-wise in its syrup-sodden cellophane packaging

The toffee apple macaron wins over the kid in all of us (a macaron! on a stick!) although it's covered in the same isomalt toffee that seems engineered to keep dentists busy.

My favourites of the lot:
rice pudding with its sandwich of gritty rice grains;

chestnut and passionfruit which tastes less like a Taiwanese chestnut sponge cake and more like a European Christmas with a hint of the tropics;

salted butter caramel - salt! butter! caramel! oh so good!

salted butter popcorn reminds me of my favourite popcorn Jelly Belly beans. It really does taste like buttered popcorn. I'm sure there's a chunk of butter in the middle and the macaron itself tastes of corn.




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Adriano Zumbo Patisserie
296 Darling Street, Balmain, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9810 7318

This has been included as an Intrepid Eat on Grab Your Fork's Top 10 Sydney Eats for Tourists. Read the entire list here.

Opening hours
Monday to Saturday 8am-6pm
Sunday 8am-4pm

The winter collection, "40 Days and 40 Nights in Paris",
was launched Saturday 23 May 2009.

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Adriano Zumbo Macaron Day photos (Oct09)
Adriano Zumbo Macaron Day flavour list (Oct09)
Adriano Zumbo Patissier, Balmain ( May09) , (Jan09) and (Nov08)
Adriano Zumbo Cafe Chocolat, Balmain (Nov08)