Adriano Zumbo – 40 days and 40 nights in Paris

Monday, 25 May 09

From the very beginning, visiting Adriano Zumbo in Balmain has led to some of the pivotal moments of my foodblogging career. It started with running into a certain pink-haired blogger who asked for a box to carry all her macarons in and instinctively knew that someone taking photos of the cakes must be a foodblogger. Everytime we visit at the beginning of a new collection, it feels like meeting old friends after several years – some will have grown up, but retained those same elements that made you fall in love with them, others will have completely changed and leave you with a mixture of surprise, awe and amusement. And the Cafe has set the scene for some foodie meets, accompanied with cameras, much fan-swooning over desserts and cakes, and this time, the man himself.

We arrived early and wandered into the cafe to be greeted with a veritable feast laid out on the tables before us. 4 of almost every cake in the new collection were generously supplied for our photographical and gastronomic pleasure. But of course, Tim and I did wait for Reem, Trina, Anita, Lili, Simon, Karen, Belle, Susan and Stephanie to arrive. Just so we didn’t get lynched for starting early, you know?

Others have tasted more of the collection than we did, though we packed some to take home and savour over the next few days. I did miss a few cakes – the Millefeuille in the top right of this photo for example, the smoked marshmallow and hazelnut cake and the interesting seaweed and carrot cake, but it was sugar-overload as it was, so I guess we’ll just have to go back a try a few more next time, right?

“Z” – Olive oil biscuit, olive oil ganache, vanilla candied Kalamata olives, lemon & olive oil creme, vanilla lemon creme legere, jumbo gumbo jelly.

“Ed Rock the Cradle” – Milk coffee cheesecake with chocolate cheesecake base, coffee scented caramel creme & Italian meringue.

The next in the Ed saga that began with the infamous “Ed Knocked Me Up” and continued with the “Ed, It’s Twins, but…”. Adriano continues the coffee theme with a delightfully cute cradle-shaped cheesecake that my photo does not do justice to. I think we’ll be back to try this one, definitely.

“W” – Chocolate pop rock & popcorn disc, vanilla almond chantilly, dulce de leche, flourless chocolate sponge, almond feulletine.

Ah, this one was so popular that within minutes of arriving, some of the food bloggers had boxed them up and decided that it was to be theirs! With a description like that, and the man himself commenting that the pop rocks could be heard popping metres away, who can resist?

“F” – Gianduja ganache with caramel in a pate sable shell.

A special last minute offering from the patisserie, this sounds like it will be decadent and rich and all things good. We’ll taste test tomorrow!

“P” – Mandarin mousse, tonka bean brulee, pain d’epice, sour cream jelly, almond ginger crunch disc.

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“Escape from a Colombia Rainforest” – flourless chocolate sponge, dark chocolate fizzy disc, cherry cola jelly, cherry cola slurp, chocolate sabayon mousse.

Not being a huge fan of cherry coke, I wasn’t *too* disappointed when this disappeared just as swiftly as the W from the selection. The concept does intrigue though, only here will you find a cake that contains slurpable liquid inside – step 1 to achieving the Water cake, perhaps?

“6/11/81” – Milk passion caramel mousse, lime creme, passionfruit marshmallow, coconut crunch and brownie.

Just from the description of this one I think I can fall in love. The abstract geometric forms in subtle shades of white present an aesthetically pleasing exterior, to be elevated by the contrasting textures and tropical flavours I’m sure. Sounds like something out of Iron Chef? I was an art student once ;)

“V” – Macadamia praline mousse, macadamia dacquoise, vanilla chantilly, pear tatine palette, macadamia feulletine.

“M” – baked meringue, lemon creme, sable sand.

Being a ridiculously avid fan of the lemon creme based cakes and tarts in previous collections, this was definitely one to take home and share with the family, also huge lemon tart fans. This is perhaps best described as an Upside Down Sunny Cloud – the meringue forms a pavlova-like base to be topped with lemon creme in icecream scoop like proportions and a fine dusting of sable sand. Admittedly, I was a little disappointed by the base – I love the marshmallowiness of italian meringue and found the baked meringue to be a little too dry. The lemon creme was as silky smooth as ever though.

“S” – Tea and passionfruit soaked pears & savarin, lavender saffron mascarpone creme, crumble, raspberry jelly, coconut rehydration pipette.

Belle looked as though she was enjoying this dessert immensely. From the description and appearance, it looks a little like a grown up combination of a trifle and a crumble. I’m sure the fruity and floral flavours will chase away the greys of winter!

“!” – Smoked rice orange brulee, violet curd, pate sable with mandarin and ruby grapefruit segments.

Speaking of which, the ! tarts are also likely to brighten up a grey winter’s day. Floral, fruity and smokey all at the same time, the flavours all just worked somehow. Tasting the strong violet at the end was like tasting the colour purple. Pure genius.

“…….” – Hazelnut meringue, anzac moisture, mint chocolate disc, vanilla apple tatin chantilly, apple tatine compote, isomalt caramel.

I’ve always wondered what the toffee apples sold in the fruit section of supermarkets are like. So bright in reds and greens, they seem appealing in a stick-to-your-teeth-and-far-too-sweet sort of way. So I was delighted to see the “…..”, because, well, as many of you would know, everything, even cake, tastes better on a stick! The combination of flavours was unexpected. Somehow the chocolate, mint and apple just worked together, even though I had never thought of the combination previously, and the nuts somehow brought it all together. I just wasn’t sure about the stained glass like sheet of caramel. It’s beautiful certainly, and the childlike appeal of the cake would be lost without it, but it poses a risk to those of use with dental fillings or braces – it will quite literally stick your jaws together! Nonetheless, I’m still converted, and will resort to leaving the crimson sheet on my plate til last, to dissolve slowly and draw the experience out longer.

A huge thanks to Adriano and Rachel at the Cafe for so kindly letting us use the space and going all out to make our afternoon/evening so comfortable, and to Reem for organising! It was great meeting all of you, or catching up again as the case may be.

12 Comments

1. heehee pink hair! thinking of changing to blue soon =P

   Comment by chocolatesuze — May 25, 2009 @ 11:34 pm

2. It was great to see you guys again. I love the pensive shot of Tim contemplating the cakes.

   Comment by Belle@OohLook — May 25, 2009 @ 11:49 pm

3. Hehe sorry! i was the one who boxed up the ‘W’ but I promise I had permission from people when they told me I could take it! I’ll owe you one next time :)

   Comment by Karen — May 26, 2009 @ 12:07 am

4. It was great to meet you guys! That violet tart was divine wasn’t it? Mmm must go back soon for more…

   Comment by Steph — May 26, 2009 @ 10:36 am

5. Great recap of the Zumbofication! Mmmm

   Comment by FFichiban — May 27, 2009 @ 11:26 pm

6. Hi Chris and Tim!

   A pleasure to meet with the both of you, even if somewhat in passing.

   You can lay the blame on me for missing out on the ‘W’ as I was the permission giver that my “master” was referring to (and not to rub it in too much but you SO missed out! :P). You should know by now that you have to act fast around food bloggers when it comes to the division of food!

   Jokes aside, I had gotten my hands on one but only just before I left. I only did so because Zumbo had a couple behind the counter and I was offered one. It’s a shame you missed out but now there is a reason to go back (as if there wasn’t already one :P). I’d thought about saying “better luck next time” but there’s no need as you can go back at any time to buy as many as your heart desires, or at least your wallet allows :)

   Comment by Simon — May 28, 2009 @ 1:55 am

7. Great round up of the food, and lovely photos. I tried a few dishes and macarons (all fantastic!) and would love to try the chocolate pop rock. Great meeting you both and everyone else who came! :)

   Comment by Anita — May 28, 2009 @ 11:54 pm

8. Great write up and thank goodness you had the names down – wouldn’t have know what to call them if it weren’t for your post! Lovely to meet you and Tim too.

   Comment by Forager — May 29, 2009 @ 1:15 pm

9. Looks like you had a fabulous afternoon and so great that Zumbo was there too :) Which was your favourite cake?

   Comment by Lorraine @NotQuiteNigella — May 31, 2009 @ 10:56 am

10. OMG how on earth did you manage to go when there were 1000000000000 assignments due the next week? SO JEALOUS!

    Comment by K — May 31, 2009 @ 5:00 pm

11. […] The Way It Crumbles […]

    Pingback by Pikelet and Pie » Blog Archive » 40 Days and Nights in Paris - Adriano Zumbo Patissier — June 8, 2009 @ 6:16 pm

12. spewin i missed out on this meet up !!
    the pics look fab and the place is on my to -eat list :)
    i usually do the bay run so will prob pop by after one of the runs… ah.. which totall defeats the purpose of exercising at all hehe

    Comment by betty — June 18, 2009 @ 6:02 pm

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