Zumbo gives pros sweet challenge

Professional chefs beware: the sultan of sweets Adriano Zumbo is already devising an extremely complex challenge for them.

The king of macarons won’t reveal the dessert that he’ll present to the contestants on Network Ten’s forthcoming MasterChef: The Professionals, but he’s got plenty of ideas swirling around his head.

"I’m still working on that one," Zumbo told AAP.

"We’re yet to shoot the episode."

Just what Zumbo throws at the professionals may not yet even exist.

The patissier says he creates 50 to 70 new desserts each year and not all of them make it on to the shelves of his stores.

And even if they do, how long they last is anyone’s guess.

He rotates his offerings every few months and, while he creates the dishes that make it into his stores, it does not mean they are safe from being eliminated from the shelves.

"Sometimes I don’t even like it," Zumbo said.

One of his latest creations is a joint effort with Bartender of the Year Tim Philips, who helped create a golden honey dripped macaron with a Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve centre.

"If you had too many of them you would be over the drink driving limit," Zumbo said with a bit of a chuckle.

Like many of his creations, Zumbo says, most the development is done in the mind more so than in the kitchen.

"It took me a week or two to think of the flavours and what to do with it (Johnnie Walker) and about a day in the kitchen to bring it together," he said.

"You are constantly thinking about it (new desserts), which is a good thing and bad thing.

"You can never settle on one thing and you are thinking `Is this old, been done before or is it new?’

"So you are constantly second guessing yourself in one sense."

MasterChef: The Professionals will be hosted by acclaimed chef Marco Pierre White and food critic and regular MasterChef judge Matt Preston.

There will be 18 qualified chefs competing for the title of MasterChef: The Professionals, which will be filmed in Melbourne on the set of a new, purpose-built commercial kitchen.

Besides Zumbo, some of the world’s most famous and innovative chefs on the series include Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal.

The successful chef will win an around-the-world trip and work experience at world-renowned restaurants, as well as a cash prize to help them fulfil their culinary dream.

Source: The West Australian, 16 November 2012