Pastry chef Kirsten Tibballs explains why she is known as the Queen of Chocolate
SHE’S known as the Queen of Chocolate and is one of our best pastry chefs in the world but don’t ask Kirsten Tibballs to cook you a savoury meal.
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SHE’S known as the Queen of Chocolate and is one of our best pastry chefs in the world but don’t ask Kirsten Tibballs to cook you a savoury meal.
Have you always been interested in baking?
I started very early on. From about the age of 12 I started selling my cakes to neighbours, friends and the teachers at the school mum and dad worked at. I didn’t make a fortune but at least I could keep what I made because mum bought the ingredients, so it was straight profit.
You must have had some early mishaps in the kitchen if you started young?
When I was about eight I was at my best friends house and they had a brand new oven. We wanted to make a cake from the Mickey Mouse cookbook but we used a cup and a half of bicarbonate of soda instead of flour and it exploded in the oven. I wasn’t very welcome around there much after that.
Did you get a chance to travel overseas when you were young to see what the rest of the world was doing with pastry and baking?
When I was about 20 I won the Baking Industry Scholarship Award and I won a trip to Europe. That opened up a whole new world to me. With social media these days, the world is a relatively small place, but back then you had to travel to see different things. The elaborate things they were doing with chocolate in Europe was amazing.
Speaking of social media, how have apps like Instagram changed your industry?
In both good and bad ways. On the bad side, there are some chefs around the world who have built their career through Instagram and how many followers they have is the most important thing. But then they may not have the best foundation of skills. On the good side, it’s an amazing marketing tool. We are relaunching our online classes soon and people will have access to around 250 instructional videos plus a new one uploaded every week. Technology has made so much possible.
How did you get the title of the Queen of Chocolate?
While I’m a pastry chef, I have focused a little more on chocolate because it’s so versatile and can be applied to so much. Back in 2013 MasterChef referred to me as the Queen of Chocolate and everyone latched onto it.
What has been the most amazing or elaborate thing you’ve worked on?
In 2004 I competed in the Pastry Olympics in Germany with another person. We chose Africa as our theme for our static display because I thought it would be fun to create all these animals. We worked on it for two to three weeks and won gold. More recently I created an all chocolate spinning wheel for a challenge on MasterChef which took about a month to create. I loved that it looked like wood, so authentic, but then you could bite into it and eat it.
How does Australia stand up on the global stage when it comes to pastry and chocolate?
We do phenomenally well on an international scale. The last time Australia competed at the World Chocolate Masters competition we came third, even beating countries like Belgium who are world renowned in that area. One of the brilliant things about Australia is that we don’t have a strong food history so we are not constrained like other countries. That allows us to be more creative.
We know you are an amazing pastry chef and chocolatier, but how do you go on the savoury front?
Lets just say I’m only comfortable cooking savoury food for my husband at home. I would never cook savoury in a commercial way, I’m not formally trained in that area.
If you didn’t become a pastry chef, what would you have done as a career?
It would definitely have been something creative, like jewellery designer or photographer or something.