Interview: Adriano Zumbo, Pastry Chef

The candy man with sweet dreams of caramelising the nation

Words by Whitney Fitzsimmons
Images by Paula Kaplan

“It just happens randomly, you know. You have an initial idea and then it just kinda grows over months with bits and pieces and then you put it together. But what you start with is usually nothing like what you finished with,” says Adriano Zumbo.

Zumbo’s creative process sounds simplistic, but if you have ever had the pleasure of experiencing one of his creations you know it’s not that easy.

Despite having the ability to strike fear into the hearts of Masterchef contestants with challenges to recreate the croquembouche, macaron tower and of course the gingerbread house, the man himself is relaxed, friendly and very down to earth – rare qualities given his meteoric rise to fame and in true television style for Zumbo it was an unplanned instantaneous fame.

Being the first series of Masterchef the show’s style was still being worked out and Adriano had only been asked to create the croquembouche not appear on the show. So when at the last minute the producers asked the man now synonymous with sweet treats to present his creation he obliged and of course as 1.9 million viewers looked on, Adriano Zumbo became an instant household name.

But the Masterchef hype seems like a world away as I sit next to the man with the famous bald pate in the Zumbo Lab which is considered to be the engine room of his burgeoning empire deep in the leafy suburban streets of Rozelle in Sydney’s Inner West. It is here that one of Australia’s most respected pastry chefs explains how from an early age he just loved all things sweet. “My parents had supermarkets as a kid and I grew fond of sweets. I didn’t eat much savoury food – if it didn’t smell like sugar, I didn’t want to eat it.”

Growing up in Coonamble in country NSW he was an avid sportsman, which was of course fuelled by all that sugar. “I played everything. I played soccer, then I played rugby league, but also played basketball and tennis and lawn bowls with my dad. It was a country town – you could play everything.” When asked if he uses exercise now to switch off and relax he replies, “I wish I had time to do that.” It’s a surprising response given it’s not hard to understand why he was chosen as one of Cleo’s Bachelors of the Year in 2010. “I use music to get my creative space at the moment or I just hide out and I don’t answer my phone and stuff like that,” he says.

The youngest son of Italian immigrants, the teenage Zumbo didn’t show signs of culinary greatness, in fact if anything it was more typical rebellious behaviour that marked this time, “My parents were strict Italians and my bedroom was on the second floor balcony. I would lock the door and sneak down the balcony and then be out til three or four in the morning – my mates would pick me up and we‘d go out drinking and stuff like that,” he says. “One time I bought a sausage roll at 3am and the baker said to my mum later ‘Hey I saw your son out the other night’ and then I thought it’s probably time to get away from home.”

At 15 the young Zumbo came to Sydney and got an apprenticeship. “I had no expectation. I had been playing around in my sister’s in-store bakery in Coonamble and I had enjoyed it. I used to make cakes and take them to school and would get good remarks,” he says. “I failed English and Science and all that sort of stuff. I’ve got that sort of mind that if you can’t keep me interested then I will sort of wander. But with pastry my mind is fully loaded with ideas and it’s really focused.”

It’s just that kind of focus he called upon when he was charged with the task of creating the V8 cake for Margaret Fulton’s 85th birthday. “It was a big ask for me and I thought, ah well I don’t want to stuff this up, so I kinda asked around what she liked and all I got back was vanilla and a little bit of chocolate and she doesn’t like fusion. So I thought I would give her eight layers of vanilla and called it V8 because V8 cars are an Aussie icon and so is Margaret.”

And there it is again, that simplicity and ease and yet over time it is evident there is much more to this 30 year old than meets the eye. “First you gotta have a dream, second you gotta have passion and you gotta have that thick skin, sort of like that never give up attitude you know what I mean.”

Zumbo is incredibly determined and clear about where he wants his business to go and yet he is also generous and soft spoken in an industry that is laden with massive egos and prima donnas. “If you want to progress and succeed you have to give it away. You know what I mean, you can’t be everything in the business, otherwise you dig yourself a hole and you can’t go forward because the business can’t grow without more people.”

When he was 21, Adriano Zumbo represented Australia at the World Cup of Patissier, the “Coup de Monde de la Patissier” in Paris and then stayed on for a month. Since that time he has gone back every year to brush up on his skills and to get in touch with new trends. “In Europe at the moment choux pastry is quite a big trend in different shapes and textures,” he says.

It’s that work ethic which he inherited from his parents that has stood him in good stead to grow his business. Since he opened the doors to his lab in Rozelle in 2007 starting with another staff member his team has grown to 85. He admits that it was hard at the time to hand over control to his staff, but slowly he got used to it. “I have a great team, but you have to put the effort in to train them.” Now Zumbo HQ works on a split shift basis with 27 people working morning and nights seven days a week. It’s hard work but rewarding and the pride his staff have in the Zumbo movement is obvious, “They’re Adriano’s creations but my hands get to make them,” as pastry chef Rory O’Dwyer says.

And of course it’s not just Zumbo’s staff who get to make his creations, it’s well-known that instead of keeping his recipes secret he encourages anyone who wants to have a go to simply do just that. “The business is never going to grow unless we can educate people to grow with it.” And education is part of the next step in the Zumbo empire. Soon cooking classes will be available at his shop in Rozelle and October will see the launch of his first book simply titled “Zumbo” for any of those who are game to try his recipes at home.

Next stop for the Zumbo empire is Melbourne and after that there are visions of his pink insignia gracing overseas shop fronts but for that he will need more time and money which will also require getting investors on board.

When asked what advice he would give to young budding chefs he is quick to say “If you have a dream keep that in mind and go for it – nothing can get in the way. I mean things can get in the way, but you just gotta keep going and not letting it. Like there’s always a way around it – the front door shuts there’s another path. There’s no mistakes in life that’s what I believe in, they’re all experiences.”

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