Textbook Boulangerie-Pâtisserie

Cakes befitting Marie Antoinette are the star attraction. By Freya Herring

Textbook Boulangerie-Patisserie, newly opened in Alexandria, is all about the French craft of bread and pastry. This means that not only does everything look stunning but also, just like real French pâtisserie, the flavours are pared back and elegant. Take the white chocolate, mango, kaffir lime and coconut cake. It’s a glossy little white cylinder of a thing, decorated with macarons and a wisp of a white chocolate curl. Within its perfectly slick walls is a base of chewy coconut dacquoise biscuit, a layer each of barely spiced kaffir custard and mango jelly, all encased in a white chocolate mousse that tastes of purest milk. It’s a very chaste, very beautiful dessert but the flavour police aren’t going to kick down the doors anytime soon. The apple crumble is a similar affair. The shape and the coating of pastel-green glaze make it look like a posh soap from Crabtree & Evelyn, but soap it is not. Inside, within a thick coat of gently flavoured apple custard mousse, is a layer of almond cake, white chocolate mousse and cinnamon-scented apple compôte. It sits on a bed of nubbly crumble made from Holland’s favourite spiced biscuit, speculoos. The flavours are gentle. For our palate, they could do with being amped up. But then again, that’s not what these guys are all about. Textbook is a partnership between veteran pastry chefs John Ralley and Steven Anderson. Ralley is the pâtissier, and has worked as a pastry chef for Wildfire in Sydney (now closed) and Michelin-starred La Trompette in London. Anderson, whose background lies in supplying bakeries, is the bread guy. And the bread is good: the white sourdough boasts a chewy, nicely caramelised crust and fluffy, sour-noted interior. Coffee by the Little Marionette overpowers the delicate cakes so if you need a hit, order a chocolate éclair to go with it instead: deep in cocoa flavour, it’s more than a match for a cup of joe.

Textbook Boulangerie Pâtisserie 274 Botany Rd, Alexandria 2015. 02 9699 6156. www.textbookpatisserie.com.au. Tue-Sat 7am-4.30pm; Sun 7am-2pm.