Dessert Masters alumni Jess Lemon opens bakery
Following months of council delays, MasterChef Australia and Dessert Masters alumni Jess Liemantara has finally opened the doors to her Nunwading bakery, Jess Lemon Bakery.
“It’s been the most popular item so far. Your standard pain au chocolat is that massive, round pastry where you get like two bites of chocolate,”
The Melbourne-based bakery’s official opening, which took place in late July, came after a soft launch in May that allowed her to hold intimate dessert and pastry masterclasses.
Speaking with Broadsheet Jess said she hadn’t anticipated how busy they would be in their opening weeks.
“I didn’t realise… the lines take up the whole street,” she said.
“We’ve been selling around 4000 pastries each week. It’s calming down a bit now and I’ve had a chance to meet more locals, so that’s been great.”
The current bestsellers instore include jumbo pain au chocolat, that sit alongside truffle and mushroom danishes, frangipane-filled almond croissants, and her hoisin pork floss pastry.
Jess said the unique cigar-shaped pain au chocolat had proved to be the bestseller so far, with customers travelling long distances to get their hands on one.
“It’s been the most popular item so far. Your standard pain au chocolat is that massive, round pastry where you get like two bites of chocolate,” Jess said.
“Ours is like a log so you get a piece of chocolate in each bite.”
Another standout item is the black sesame peanut pastry, which Jess said is also the most difficult to produce as the dough alone takes three days.
“Then building each layer is quite an involved process. The black sesame brittle has to be rolled out really thinly, and at this stage only I can do that while we train everyone up. The caramel takes a few hours to cook, and the crumble that goes between the layers takes a similar amount of time to prepare,” she said.
Plans are underway to incorporate Jess’s hugely popular macarons into the product line up too.
“We’re planning to bring them back, we’ve had so many people asking about them,” she said.
“Things have just been so busy with the pastries that we haven’t had time yet.”
Jess first hit Australian TV screens in 2018 when she debuted on MasterChef Australia. She was one of the youngest contestants to ever appear on the series. This was followed up by time spent in the kitchens at The Press Club, Nobu Crown, and the Raffles Hotel Jakarta. She returned to MasterChef Australia in 2020, and then placed third on the inaugural season of Dessert Masters.
