Pastry chef Lauren Eldridge was taught to roll a croissant by prominent French chef Guy Savoy, and worked at the three-Michelin-star Le Cinq in Paris and Italian restaurateur Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana in Italy. Her next stop? The back streets of Newtown.

Eldridge’s last position was at iconic waterfront fine-diner Berowra Waters Inn. From this week she’ll ply her trade at Paisano & Daughters, the group behind Continental Deli, which is opening three restaurants in January on Newtown’s Australia Street.

The buzz of the inner west appealed to the chef after the tranquillity of Berowra Waters, as did the inner west’s “really strong sense of their own community”. Eldridge will be head of pastry across the deli, incoming vegetarian restaurant Flora, oyster-shucking seafood venue Mister Grotto and an Italian 50-seater Osteria Mucca.

The queen of honeycomb and cultured cream promises Continental Deli’s punny tinned desserts (like Flan in a Can) are safe. “There’s also Can-Accota,” she says.

“I’d never used a canning machine before,” Eldridge says. She also has the cool kids’ weapon of choice at her disposal: a soft-serve ice-cream machine.

“I’ll be taking a lot of my inspiration from what the [individual] chefs do,” Eldridge says. “To start off I’m going to keep it quite traditional, I’m not opposed to a tirra,” she says when asked if Osteria Mucca will include a tiramisu.

At Berowra Waters Inn there was always a steady flow of vegetarian requests, so she’s already primed for Flora. Eldridge believes demand is growing for vegan product as well, so she has been trialling products such as vegan cream and vegan chocolate in her creations.

Owners and brothers-in-law Joe Valore and Elvis Abrahanowicz established Paisano & Daughters in 2008 as a family business for their now seven daughters. Eldridge, who was awarded the Good Food Guide’s Young Chef of the Year Award in 2016, is herself prepared to mentor the next generation of girls and women when they are ready.

“[A couple of the girls] just had their sixth birthday, they’ll be the official taste-testers of my ice-cream,” she says.