Childhood memories loom large in sweet tooth's fantasy

Give a man a sweet and he'll indulge for a day; teach a man to make sweets and he'll indulge for a lifetime. Either is possible at Sweetfest, a celebration of all things sugary and sumptuous taking place this weekend as part of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Month.

Dessert king Alistair Wise will substitute champagne for soda in a 55-glass ice-cream fountain. And sweet tooths can pig out on his "gutter trash sundae" - a 2.4 metre trough of ice-cream, strawberry Szechuan sorbet, crushed-up macarons, jelly and sherbet.

"It's full of memories, and food is best when it's evocative," says Wise, 37. The Hobart-born pastry chef has worked for Gordon Ramsay and been acclaimed by The New York Times, but these days he spends much of his time on the road in a reconditioned ice-cream van, Big Bessie, making retro-flavoured treats for festivals.

If it all sounds like the recreation of a childhood fantasy, that's not far from the mark.

"Back in the day you used to go to a milk bar, you'd have a Coke float or a spider, you'd have a plate of chips," Wise says. "It's a beautiful thing."

It will be a good weekend to skip counting calories, with more than a dozen of Sydney's specialist sweet makers showing off their wares. Treats include Persian love cakes from the beloved Brickfields, a "superfood caramel slice" from Enmore's Sadhana Kitchen and deep fried banana ice cream from the celebrated Chat Thai.

And budding bakers can take a tutorial from masters such as Dan Lepard, Katherine Sabbath and Andrew Bowden. Christopher Thé of Newtown's Black Star Pastry will demonstrate "the lost art of the strudel", while Nadine Ingram of Flour and Stone will lift the lid on crafting the perfect nougat.

Sweetfest, part of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Month, is at aMBUSH Gallery, Level 3, 28 Broadway, Central Park, Chippendale, on Saturday and Sunday from 9am.