Everyone has different tastes and palates. Most of the time I put a smile on people's faces but sometimes you get people who have a different view and you take that on board and see what you can make of it.
I look at what's happening, the trends and what people want, to come up with something that's going to work.
I live my normal life. I love what I do, and try to look after myself as much as I can.
I learnt a lot from eating junk food.
I love raw caster sugar. It's a bit more earthy than white sugar, especially for cakes.
Temperature is the key to making a smooth custard butter cream. Some add the butter when the mixture's still hot but it tends to split and you end up with a grainy result. Wait for it to cool.
I couldn't pay attention to a novel; I'd get three pages in and couldn't remember what it was about.
There are no mistakes in life... only experiences.
The hardest challenge is doing something more traditional. When you do something new, it's easier because it's its own thing. But the traditional ones, you have to do them right.
A lot of old Australian bakeries used a lot of trans-fats but I just wanted to use quality ingredients - butter, cream, custard - to produce a high-quality product.
I had a Vegemite bun every day from the tuck shop for lunch when I was a kid and I was inspired by that.
Chocolate's good for ya - high cocoa content chocolate is.
I ate everything. I ate every single lolly you can think of. Chocolate bars, Curly Wurlys, Aero bars, Fantales, Minties, Clinkers, Cherry Ripes. Pretty much anything, you name it, I ate it.
Mostly my ideas come from within, from my experiences, my childhood and the master of all sweets and lollies, Mr. Willy Wonka.
I eat around 6 handfuls of 65 percent and up cocoa mass content chocolate each day.
Compound chocolate is gritty, cheaper and doesn't have that fruitiness, the backnotes and smoothness you get in couverture.
Chocolate is one of those flavors that's very likeable, very loveable, very versatile.
When we first opened in 2007 no one really knew about macarons. We sold maybe 50 to 100 a day.
I do the odd pie, or quiche or sausage roll.
When I was a kid, my parents ran a supermarket; I grew up in there and everything was free, it was like a wonderland. There were lollies and biscuits and chips, and I used to eat more of that than vegetables.
