Mrs. Ip's Kitchen: Adriano Zumbo Patisserie

Caught up with some girls from church over brunch and we stopped over at Adriano Zumbo's patisserie at Balmain for morning tea and then an afternoon tea at Adriano Zumbo's Cafe in Rozelle! Pure indulgence, I know!

It was about elevenish when we visited his patisserie in Balmain and there was already a small crowd hanging outside. When we went inside there was an assortment of pastries, breads and perfectly presented desserts.

I had originally picked 5 desserts but in the end decided to not get the chocolate mousse as the shop assistants advised for it to not be left out for more than half an hour. Since the girls and I still had plans to visit the Balmain and Rozelle markets I thought I could pick it up later in the afternoon but alas there was none left! So in the end I purchased a lemon meringue éclair, pear perfection, malteaser and passionfruit/citrus tart.

Lemon Meringue Éclair- as the name suggests, is a cross between a lemon meringue tart and chocolate éclair (two of my favourite desserts combined together). This dessert was simply delicious- the eclair choux pastry was cooked golden, filled with a lemon curd type filling- there were even chunks of lemon inside it which gave this dessert bursts of extra lemon, yum! For the top of the eclair instead of the usual chocolate fondant it was the meringue. It was very moreish!

Pear Perfection- by far the most elaborate looking out of all the ones that I had bought. This dessert was also featured in a pressure test on Junior Masterchef so naturally I was very keen to try this. I have to admit though I was slightly disappointed with this dessert as I didn't taste much pear flavour but having said that, pear isn't a very strong flavour in and of itself so it would've been hard to carry alot of that through in this dessert. As you can see in the photo below, this dessert was perfectly stacked with each layer perfectly defined. You can also see the different techniques and effort that went into making this dessert.

Malteser- This dessert had melted alot by the time I brought it home. In fact, it had collapsed and was a sloppy mess but despite the presentation being lost, the flavours remained intact and they were fantastic and it tasted as the name suggesed, like those little balls of Maltesers.

Citrus tart- The most unassuming and plain looking of all the ones that I bought but it tasted absolutely delicious! The pastry base was nice, thin and short and the citrus filling was flavoursome and tangy. So refreshing to eat, elegant to look at and simple flavours to enjoy.

Unfortunately there wasn't a huge selection of macaroons to pick from on the day which was disappointing since I wanted to get a pack full of different flavours to share with other friends (I'm personally not a big fan of the macaroon).
Coffee Brulee was by far my favourite flavour out of the entire selection available on the day and as the name suggests it was like a creme brulee only coffee flavoured. Sugar crystals were coated on the outside of the macaroon with a coffee flavoured filling in the middle.
Lemon and Olive Oil- a classic combination flavour that always works well together. Could definitely taste both flavours infused into the macaroon.
Rice Pudding- this really did taste like a rice pudding! And I know what you're thinking 'durrh! That's what it says' but I didn't expect it to taste so much alike. This macaroon had a coating of cinnamon powder on the outside whilst the filling inside was soft and tasted "ricey".
Pear and Vanilla- again I couldn't taste much of the pear flavour in this but you could taste the vanilla. My girlfriends simply loved this flavour.

In the afternoon we decided to pay a visit to the cafe to get a cup of coffee and relax after a day of shopping. To our surprise, the place was a lot more smaller than what we had made it out to be and there really weren't all that many seats to sit on, maybe 9 in total? It was more like a bar with a couple of stools! Having said that though, where you are seated, you have full view of inside the kitchen and where they make all those yummy desserts ready to be delivered to the shops and customers.

I saw Adriano's team of pastry chefs piping macaroons and making various slices and bases. Some customers came to the shop to pick up their orders so I was also able to see 1 croquembouche and 1 macaroon tower. Impressive looking indeed!

Then suddenly, whilst we were enjoying our pastries, we caught a glimpse of the man himself Adriano Zumbo, inside the kitchen giving some directions to his staff. We all giggled hysterically that we caught sight of him and were frantically grabbing our cameras and phones from our handbags to take snapshots of him. Some of the girls were even banging on the window hoping to get his attention. Whilst it would've totally been awesome if we could've all got a photo with him it was still pretty cool that we got to see a glimpse of him in the flesh =)