Sweet Success

Author of two cookbooks, founder and director of a chocolate culinary school, and the ambassador for Callebaut, KitchenAid and Bulla Family Dairy. Kirsten Tibballs, one of Austalia’s most celebrated chocolatiers, shares with Victoria Lim on what keeps her going.

Imagine getting woken up by a whiff of delicious chocolate cakes on a bright fall morning, and then heading down to the kitchen to find your child buried among a stack of cakes. To Kirsten Tibballs’ parents, this was a common sight in their household – where their 13-year-old daughter had set up a home cake-making business selling novelty, birthday and wedding cakes to extended family and friends.

Tibballs’ enterprise and talent for chocolate-making started when she was 15 years old. She undertook a chef’s apprenticeship at Post Office in Queensland, before becoming a trainee at Schrader’s Patisserie in Mornington. By 20, she was honing her skills at the upscale Sheraton Towers Hotel Melbourne as a commis pastry chef. With encouragement from her colleagues, she entered the National Australian Baking Scholarship Award in 1997 and won the chance to travel to Brussels and Paris to work with international pastry bigwigs, including a stint at Wittamer in Brussels.

Before founding Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School in 2002, Tibballs was the corporate pastry chef in F. Myer Imports, demonstrating and promoting Callebaut chocolate. And in 2004, she represented Australia at the World Pastry Team Championships in Las Vegas, where they crowned her creation as the Best Handmade Chocolates. In addition, Tibballs is also active in judging – she was a judge at the World Chocolate Masters 2015 in Paris, The Patisserie Grand Prix 2015 in Japan, and The World Chocolate Masters National 2016 selections in London.