Savour
Kirsten Tibballs opened a patisserie school on Wilson Avenue, Brunswick, in 2002, arguing that Australian pastry chefs needed somewhere local to learn techniques usually only taught in Europe. Classes are capped at twelve students and run in an industrial teaching kitchen built for the purpose, covering everything from tempering and showpiece chocolate work to entremets and viennoiserie; each course ends with participants carrying their own work, and the recipe, out the door. The school brings in Meilleur Ouvrier de France pastry chefs as guest instructors most years, a rare drawcard for a suburban Melbourne street, and has built a companion library of online classes for students who can't get to Brunswick in person. Former students have gone on to open their own chocolate and patisserie businesses around the country. Office hours run Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm, with hands-on classes bookable by the day, a working school rather than a retail shop, but one open to professionals and enthusiastic beginners alike.