Gareth Whitton has long been a well-known name in the Australian – and international – baking scene. From his early days at Pier and Quay, to his time at Dinner at Heston and more recently Lune Croissanterie, Gareth has carved out a name for himself as a pastry chef. The last few years have been momentous for Gareth. 2023 saw him claim the inaugural Dessert Masters title, while his COVID side hustle Tarts Anon currently has everyone talking.

Why did you decide to become a pastry chef? What first drew you to the baking industry?

It kind of a kind of happened by accident, to be honest. I originally I started off as a savoury chef. I’ve working as a kitchen hand since I was 14-years-old. Then, with no real direction after I finished year 12, I decided that I’d go into the kitchen and pastry was the first place they put me. The rest is history. I’ve gone back and forth, but about 10 years ago I started to stay put in pastry, and I’ve been there ever since.

Can you take us through your career?

One of the tarts produced by Tarts Anon.
Image: Tarts Anon

I started off working at a small vineyard restaurant in my hometown, which is in the southern highlands of New South Wales. I was there for only about six months before I decided to move on and go to the big smoke.

I then worked at a restaurant in Sydney called Pier, which had three hats for the entire three years I worked there. I stayed there until I was 22, then worked at Quay for two years in Circular Quay. I moved to the Netherlands after that.

In Holland I worked at a restaurant called Oud Sluis. Again, it was a three Michelin starred restaurant. It had a very small team, and a small tasting menu. It was a pretty intense experience. I was there for a year and came back home with the intention to leave for the UK straightaway. I then moved to the UK to work at Dinner by Heston.

For the first half of my career I chased the best of the best. I wanted to work at the best places because I figured if you were ambitious you’ve got to expose yourself to the to the best.

I worked at Heston’s restaurant in London for about a year and a bit before I moved home. I’d pretty much signed on to open up the new Dinner by Heston at the Melbourne Crown Casino.

About a year later, and after having a little bit of a hiatus and doing other projects, I then moved to Melbourne as pastry sous chef at Dinner. I was promoted after a bit to head pastry chef there, and had been doing that when the pandemic happened and the restaurant closed.

I went to work at Lune Croissanterie for about a year or so before we started Tarts Anon as a little side hustle.

You were considering leaving the industry at one point. Is that right?

When we closed Dinner by Heston it was a very taxing experience. We tried to do a lot to save the restaurant. The management team really put a lot into it, because we’d been there through the hard times and we’d all come over from the UK. So, we all had a little bit more of an emotional investment. Their livelihoods were at stake for the restaurant not to survive this whole situation.

At the end of it I was a bit over it, and I kind of fell out of love with cooking. I didn’t want to do the antisocial hours. I felt like a bit disillusioned about the state of the industry at that time as well. I was looking at doing something still within hospitality. I put feelers out for recruitment jobs, managers jobs, sales jobs, things of that nature. Then it all came to a head in March of 2020.

All these opportunities sort of fell through, and I started looking for more work in the kitchen. But the kitchens didn’t really have jobs because everything was closing, so I ended up working at Woolworths, because I needed to leave the house and do something. That only lasted about six or seven months before I started at Lune, and I was at Lune for a year.

But pretty much the whole time I was at Lune we had this little side hustle baking some stuff at home. There’s actually a bit of irony in that. We had planned to do all these things, and then all of a sudden I got this job at Lune and I was like ‘oh right, we don’t need to do Tarts [Anon] anymore’.

The Tarts Anon story is very much like a fairytale. Did you anticipate it would grow from producing the tarts in your kitchen to where it is today?

Gareth Whitton
Image: Tarts Anon

All the factors have been against us in terms of growth, and I reckon my own stubbornness. I was probably the one thing that could have been our downfall.

I didn’t really want to do it at all for a long time. There’s a lot of risk in small business. There’s a lot of hard work. I’ve always been one to sort of be very committed to my work, and very few people have long term and sustainable success purely off their own back. Call me a nihilist, but I felt like I needed to do everything I could. [I wanted to] learn, make the mistakes on someone else’s time and money and in that sense mitigate all that risk. That was my philosophy.

When the whole idea of us doing something as our sole source of income without any contingency came up, I was a bit like “maybe not”. Plus, I was into working at Lune and I thought I was going to be a great teacher there. But it became a bit too big to ignore, which was great. It’s a really good problem to have.

What led to you deciding to focus on tarts in particular?

I really like classic cooking. I have a real affinity for simple precision, like functional beauty. Things that are simple, not rustically simple, but simple in a sense there’s nowhere to hide with these sorts of things.  If you do absolutely every step and every element to perfection, then you can have something great. You don’t need the little bells and whistles. The beauty in both its visual and its taste and checks and how it eats and stuff is all in its simplicity.

I guess that pressure back onto me, because I feel the simplicity of our stuff means it has to be perfect. It’s put extra pressure on our team, and myself to achieve those lofty standards and to have systems and protocols and methods to be able to achieve that.

The reason we turned to it in lockdown was because it’s probably – in my opinion – the most technical thing that you can make without professional  equipment. You don’t need anything fancy. You don’t need silicone molds, you don’t need a piping bag. You don’t need anything other than a rolling pin and a tin. Even the mixing of the dough was done by hand.

I was also inspired a lot by this single products business model that seems to really thrive in Melbourne, in particular. If you can do one thing, and even variations on that, then a lot of people will associate excellence with that.

Last year saw you take out the Dessert Masters title. Can you share about the experience?

The store’s distinctive signage.
Image: Tarts Anon

I think it all kind of snowballed on from the first appearance I had on the show [MasterChef] as a guest judge. There was an idea by the production team to sort of revolutionise the whole idea of what MasterChef was. When they changed the judges they rebranded almost, and I think they were really looking to champion a lot of new movers and shakers in the industry. So there were a lot of younger chefs, a lot of people with small businesses.

I guess we were lucky in that sense that they took a gamble on us and saw that what we did was worthy of it. They gave us a crack and it was very successful.

From there on in I was kind of always on the radar with the team at MasterChef. I was keen to do it, just knowing how much of an impact it had on our business the first time around.

The experience itself was incredible. It was pretty stressful and exhausting because Tarts Anon was still operating full time while I was on the show.  So we were shooting Monday to Friday and they were long days. Then I’d go in and work on the weekends..

This year is also a big one for you because you’ve got your first cookbook coming out.

When we were asked to do book I was like, “What are you talking about?”. I know that there’s a bit of a culture now, particularly when it comes to cookbooks, that anyone can do it.

I kept thinking I hadn’t done enough. I know that’s a bit impostor syndromey, but I genuinely thought we’ve only been in business for two years. Before that my job was to design foods for other people.

We actually turned down two offers from other publishers and it wasn’t until we were approached by Hardie Grant, who are obviously a very reputable publishing house, that we thought “look, ok maybe”.

What’s up next for you and for Tarts Anon?

We’re really trying to say measured with our ambition. Not really go through lofty heights of opening stores here, there and everywhere and spreading ourselves too thin. We’re basically trying to just build on the brand that we have by exposing ourselves to other opportunities.

Obviously, the book is going to be a very important thing as the time comes out. There’s going to be lots of press opportunities, so I’m looking at stepping away from the day-to-day running of the kitchen, and oversee the business as a whole bit more.

That’s kind of the focus. Once we get the beast well and truly rolling and evolving in that sense we may then look at another store. We’re just not exactly sure where yet but it’s potentially interstate.