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Just open: John Marshall's Frugii Dessert Bar, Braddon

Jil Hogan
Jil Hogan

Ed Marshall, Leon Marshall 16, and John Marshall.
Ed Marshall, Leon Marshall 16, and John Marshall.Jamila Toderas

His desserts are well known around town, and now ice-cream alchemist John Marshall's creations have a place to call home.

The Frugii Dessert Laboratory opened on Wednesday in the brand new Ori building in Braddon.

The store is filled with all the makings of dessert heaven, from inventive ice-creams to cakes and pastries.

The lemon lime and bitters choux pastry.
The lemon lime and bitters choux pastry.Jamila Toderas
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He's most well-known for his ice-creams, and the opening offerings include vanilla, chocolate, salted caramel, lemon myrtle, cookies and cream, lemon sorbet and blood orange sorbet.

But Marshall is also excited to use the new venue to show off his other creations.

"What I wanted to do was basically push my cakes out that I've been making for as long as my ice-cream but never really had an outlet for them," he said.

Marshall's colleague, Ali King, an insurance broker by trade with a passion for pastry, created the eye-catching lemon lime and bitters choux pastry.

"The idea is to approach the dish with caution, and the idea is you stab it in the top to push the bitters through and it's absolutely mind blowing," Marshall said.

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It sits alongside other baked goods from fruity verrines and trifles to layer cakes.

The delicate and beautiful treats are all made in-house, using as natural and fresh ingredients as possible.

To create the sleek fit out, Marshall worked with Nick Bulum, the creative director of B & T Construction, the company that developed Ori.

"We worked with Nick, who actually designed the whole building, so basically the design would fit within the building nicely," Marshall said.

"We wanted nice clean lines, sort of minimalist design, and basically something that will match the new Braddon look."

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Marshall's chocolate ice-cream has even caught the eye of German chocolate maker Georg Bernardini, who was visiting the store Wednesday afternoon to put it to the taste test.

"He's writing a new book and he's heard my chocolate ice-cream is possibly one of the best so he wants to put it in his new book," Marshall said.

"So I'm a bit rapt about that - and worried at the same time."

Once the Frugii team has settled into their new home, a laboratory will be added and the menu will expand to plated desserts and specialty creations that Heston Blumenthal would be proud of.

"I do everything with an angle on chemistry so we will be introducing liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide," Marshall said.

"I'm not a fan of liquid nitrogen for ice-cream but it has its place within a high-tech kitchen. And I'll do plates of salted caramel three ways, so traditional, with liquid nitrogen and with CO2, to show people where it can be best used."

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Jil HoganJil Hogan is an food and lifestyle reporter at The Canberra Times.

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