Adriano Zumbo

“I ate everything. I ate every single lolly you can think of. Chocolate bars, Curly Wurlys, Aero bars, Fantales, Minties, Clinkers, Cherry Ripes. Pretty much anything, you name it, I ate it.”

“When I was 19, I began work at a French sourdough bakery in Balmain.”

“When I was a kid, my parents ran a supermarket; I grew up in there and everything was free, it was like a wonderland. There were lollies and biscuits and chips, and I used to eat more of that than vegetables.”

“You can always imagine the unexpected and strive for it. You may never get there, but it's always a good thing to have.”

“Mostly my ideas come from within, from my experiences, my childhood and the master of all sweets and lollies, Mr. Willy Wonka.”

“I couldn't pay attention to a novel; I'd get three pages in and couldn't remember what it was about.”

“Chocolate fondant, creme brule, and sponge cake with jam, cream and fresh berries are always winners.”

“I eat around 6 handfuls of 65 percent and up cocoa mass content chocolate each day.”

“I've probably got about 300 books. I love collecting books.”

“Chocolate is one of those flavors that's very likeable, very loveable, very versatile.”

“I'm not that menacing. Although I can be quite direct.”

“I'm a bit of a thinker so I think a lot, and process a lot, and it always evolves into something different.”

“Everyone has different tastes and palates. Most of the time I put a smile on people's faces but sometimes you get people who have a different view and you take that on board and see what you can make of it.”

“For me inspiration is pretty much life. The life around you and everything that happens, the people you meet, where you go, what you've eaten in your childhood.”

“In my early teenage years I wasn't doing well at school and I wasn't really interested in a way. I knew I wasn't going to go to uni or anything like that.”

“I learnt a lot from eating junk food.”

“I'll eat a bowl of bircher muesli for breakfast and I really like fresh carrot, orange, ginger and mint juice.”

“Whether it's a leaf from a tree, the supermarket or person, everything is art and movement, it's all inspiration.”

“So my brain started ticking and I bought all my books from a cookbook shop, Libraire Gourmand in Paris. I bought them over the Internet and they sent them from France. I got the 'Larousse' in a box with 20 other books. I was pretty excited. It was like Christmas for 20 years.”

“I love Vegemite sandwiches, Milo, ham sandwiches, chicken breasts, and that's all I used to eat. I wouldn't eat anything else. So at home there was always two sets of dinner, one for Mum and Dad and one for me, because I was so fussy.”