Kirsten Tibballs has always loved patisserie: “I enjoy the science, structure and artistry that I think is not as prevalent in cooking,” she says.

Kirsten has been a pastry chef for 26 years now. She initially apprenticed in Australia, won a scholarship to France and Belgium where she worked to further her skill set. She opened Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School in 2002.

After working in France and Belgium Kirsten could see the local market was lagging behind. “I could see Australia was so behind Europe, but not everybody had the resources to travel to Europe to train,” Kirsten says.

“Since I opened Savour, we have seen over 130 businesses opened by our students, based upon their training with us. We offer short courses and we are constantly updating the class content to match current trends.”

Kirsten says the biggest challenge she faces in her business is “Continuously staying ahead of trends and developing new products and concepts.”

When looking for new talent Kirsten says, “It’s important that all our chefs have the ability to teach, which is not always easy. They need to be patient, personable and passionate about patisserie and chocolate.”

Kirsten’s describes her proudest moments in running the school so far has been winning a gold medal at the Pastry Olympics and being awarded the best chocolates in the world at the World Pastry Team Championships in Las Vegas.

Her single proudest career moment to date was launching her own cookbook, ‘Chocolate To Savour’.

Kirsten hopes to expand Savour’s hands-on and online classes in the near future, and to possibly release another book in 2015.