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Canberra patissier enters Savour competition

Natasha Rudra

Kirsten Tibballs from Savour Chocolate.
Kirsten Tibballs from Savour Chocolate.Supplied

Kotesh Khandal has worked across the world but later this month he'll be working for a big prize - the Savour Patissier of the Year competition.

"In the past few years I've always wanted to take part in competitions and because of work it hasn't happened. But this time I said come what may I'll go for it," he says.

He's been a fan of Kirsten Tibballs, the patissier and MasterChef judge who's running the competition in Melbourne.

Raspberry lychee millefeuille by Kotesh Khandal of Sage restaurant in Canberra.
Raspberry lychee millefeuille by Kotesh Khandal of Sage restaurant in Canberra.Supplied
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"I've been following her since my time in London. I think she's done a great job organising it. The chefs that are judging to be able to get them on board is quite an achievement," he says.

The chefs have to make four specialised pastries, including a macaron, an eclair and entremet. "We've got to make something that is hopefully in my understanding out of the normal, showing a lot of technical skills and something new and modern in terms of flavour and looks," Khandal says.

He's been making pastry "all my life", starting nearly 20 years ago when he began training in hospitality in Mumbai. Khandal joined two big hotel groups - the Taj Group and then the Oberoi Group, where he worked in in-flight food services and did six months of butchery. Not the start you'd expect from someone who would eventually move into delicate desserts and chocolate work - but he's grateful for it. "It taught me a lot of skills that I use even today."

Kotesh Khandal's deconstructed passionfruit pavlova.
Kotesh Khandal's deconstructed passionfruit pavlova.Supplied

Khandal is a self described sweet tooth - and one of his relatives suggested he should use his taste to his advantage and go train at the Cordon Bleu school. So he went to London. Khandal says he eventually ended up at one of Marcus Wareing's restaurants (the Savoy Grill), then went to Nobu and the Michelin-starred chains Hakkasan and Yauatcha from entrepreneur Alan Yau, who founded Wagamama.

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Then he moved to Australia to work at Vue du Monde. What brought him to Canberra? "Basically after my time in Melbourne I was in two minds whether to stay in Australia or go back to India - and one of the main reasons we decided to move to Canberra was to have more of family time really," he says. "I didn't want my daughter to grow up not knowing her father. Here I spend my days at work and evenings and weekends I try to be dedicated at home. In Melbourne I didn't have as much of that."

Besides, he likes what he sees in Canberra.

"The Canberra food scene is growing, becoming much more interesting. The executive chef, Damian Brabender has just left the company, and working with him was great, looking into a different side of food in terms of flavours. It was very interesting," he says.

It would be silly to talk to a high level pastry chef and not ask him to spill the secrets of the trade. So what does Khandal reckon is the best thing for a home baker to learn?

"It's very important to have your basics covered," he says. "Even your basic sponges like a Victoria sponge. Or butter cream, ganache, those are still the bases of modern cuisine. So once you have those right, the world is your oyster."

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Practice, practice, and more until you've got the basics down pat - not just in terms of a perfectly risen sponge, but also in flavour.

"My brother-in-law, who lives in Canberra, he's a home baker and home cook, he never follows recipes, he just chucks stuff together," Khandal says with a laugh. "But you have to be a natural to do that."

The one piece of kit he does recommend for all bakers is a big one.

"You should have a KitchenAid or something similar in your kitchen," he says. "It speeds up your work. Otherwise you've got to use a lot of elbow grease."

And a little patience goes a long way. "I always tell people it's not a matter of getting it done faster, it's a matter of getting it done properly."

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The Savour competition takes place from May 22-24 and Khandal will be heading down a day or two early to get himself set up. He finds inspiration from other chefs on the internet and from scouring cookbooks.

"You have to be excited. I've always been passionate [about patisserie]," he says. "I want to experiment, find new things and flavour combinations. I never believe that a pastry chef knows it all."

See savourschool.com.au

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Default avatarNatasha Rudra is an online editor at The Australian Financial Review based in London. She was the life and entertainment editor at The Canberra Times.

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