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Inside Story

Renault Masterclass with Adriano Zumbo

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A marriage of French stylish cars and macarons. The World Loves Melbourne attended an epic Renault masterclass with Adriano Zumbo at Urban Kitchen where we learned the art of making Zumbarons straight from his latest book The Zumbo Files.

We were celebrating Adriano's partnership with Renault; with a chauffeur ride in a Renault Captur to and from the media event. As soon as we opened the door of the Renault Captur we noticed cooking aprons on the seats! Our driver Clare requires mention for her engagement and friendly chat, as well as supplying us with packets of mints and ice cold water. We find the Renault Captur stylish and surprisingly roomy. This class of car is massive in Europe and Renault is enjoying increasing marketshare in Australia.

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Our Renault Masterclass was held at the well appointed Urban Kitchen, where there's a plethora of state of the art cooking stations (perfect for us to cook the recipe at hand of Banana and Balsamic Zumbarons). The set up here is top notch; you feel like a masterchef.

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Could we the media/bloggers make such a complex dish? The macarons take several hours to make with many stages of the process. They may look delicate but macarons require much technique. (Check out David and Sam from The World Loves Melbourne above).

Adriano Zumbo is a celebrity chef who is also "grounded" and approachable - throughout the class he was helpful, skilful and funny. He could have been harder on us in the kitchen and was somewhat forgiving. Having said that the standard of cooking by the media was high - no evident "stuff ups"!

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The World Loves Melbourne excelled when it came to creating the mixture to go inside the macarons - buttery with banana and caramel flavours, layed out on a tray to set. Sam from The World Loves Melbourne was trained as a chef and relished the opportunity.

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All the while Adriano Zumbo was instructing us - from the front of house with us all gathered around. He then patrolled the floor engaging us at our cooking stations. 

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The shells of the macarons need to be chewy and airy and of perfect shape. Delicate piping techniques are required.

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The World Loves Melbourne proved adept at piping to our surprise (both David and Sam). You need to twist the piping bag to get the right amount of pressure.

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Baking the shells in the oven was also an exacting process - we need to feel the shells to discern as to whether they were at the right consistency.

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Assembling the macarons also took skill - you need to match the shells exactly. Then pipe a generous amount of filling in the middle. 

Our Zumbarons in a box looked a treat. We made 3 trays and 3 boxes of Zumbarons - enough for us to enjoy with friends for days. (A tip from Adriano was to put the Zumbarons in the fridge overnight before eating).

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We were then taken to Adriano's latest patisserie Fancy Nance (named after his Mum), again chauffeured in a Renault Captur, for a superb high tea (with desserts coming out before savoury). Pink flamingo artwork gave this a chic Miami kind of feel.

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We were privileged as Adriano sat around the table with us and told us about his life growing up in country NSW and his Willy Wonka type dreams that are coming to pass.

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This was an epic day; and we don't use the term lightly. The World Loves Melbourne enjoyed our husband and wife effort in the kitchen, networking with other media, and the awesome engagement of Adriano Zumbo. Thanks also to Renault and Sosa Communications, who always put on some of the best events in Melbourne.