Goddess of chocolate

Kristen Tibballs, chocolatier, speaks to Asmita Sarkar about her love for creating innovative desserts

Pastry chef and chocolatier Kristen Tibballs is a magician with chocolate and at the top of her game, who runs a school successfully in Melbourne, and was recently on MasterChef Australia to wow the participants and the audience with her skills. However, the success has come at a price. She finds it hard to maintain a work-life balance since she has a family. Juggling home and work might seem difficult but the veteran has been around a while and has learnt to keep a handle on both gradually.

Tiballs has also represented Australia at world championships and as a judge for global competitions. In 2002 she founded Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School in Brunswick, Melbourne, which has been running successfully and she has become a teacher full-time. She talked about the pressures in handling customer feedback and kitchens but says that she’s moved on to becoming an educator and no longer has to deal with customers directly.

Her journey began towards becoming a pastry chef long before she became an adult. Her first teacher was her mother from whom she learnt to make cakes and other bakes right from the age of 8.

Her speciality lies in chocolate, of which there are options like white, dark and milk. It is believed that chocolate being a heavy ingredient is limited but she has been exploring the boundaries. Her personal favourite is a combination of dark chocolate and caramel, because of the crunchy and soft creamy textures, as well as salted peanuts and chocolate. Chocolate with berries are also another combination on the top of her list.

Tibbals, who loves teaching, and loves learning as much, takes pride in her creations which have innovative names  and are crafted with as much love and care. Her Style rebellion lollipop, which she made during her time in Barcelona,    is a glazed lollipop made with coloured chocolate from a similar colour palate. It needs white and milk chocolate and  chocolate truffles to make this sweet marvel.

She recently appeared on Season 10 of MasterChef Australia, in which she made a chocolate spinning wheel, proving her skills and ingenuity. This compelling series features top Australian chefs Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, all experts in their fields. They judge passionate home cooks who participate in competitive culinary challenges to develop their cooking skills and win the title of the best chef. The show has also been the topic of conversation among viewers from around the world for its riveting culinary delights and bold challenges.

About putting Australian cuisine on the world map, she says that her country is doing well globally despite being a relatively new country that doesn’t have much history. With social media, people have access to every kind of cuisine to emulate, tweak and experiment with, she says. Not only are people flocking to the internet to look up new creations, they are also putting up their own on the web to make it popular, so there’s a world community among food lovers currently pushing each other to do better.