The creative couple behind cult Melbourne bakery Tarts Anon

When Gareth Whitton won Masterchef spin-off Dessert Masters, the tickertape and sparkles were rousing. But the real passion behind Tarts Anon plays out on its Instagram account, run by Whitton’s partner – in life and brand – Catherine Way.

At the end of one exuberant post, Way writes: “… yes I also think he’s hot and NO he’s not single, but he does have a great new T-shirt and cookbook on pre-order so maybe you can show your support that way, homewreckers.”

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A previous post addressed Whitton’s Masterchef debut: “While I will never forget to remind you that Tarts Anon was my idea, it’s without a doubt you who has taken my cunning plans to bring in some extra cash to cater for my various lockdown wine subscriptions and created something that is truly beyond my wildest imaginations.”

Way is the maverick manager to Whitton’s pastry chef pop star, smoothing his journey from old-school fine dining to niche dominance as Tarts Anon and building up their “tarthole community” through impish messaging and showcasing his stunning creations.

Since the company’s inception they’ve accrued two shops (in Cremorne and Collingwood), cool collabs, reality TV stardom and now a cookbook.

The couple, who live in Thornbury with their two-year-old son Otis and dog, Spud, met in Europe a decade ago when Whitton was working as chef de partie at Dinner by Heston London. Way, a speech therapist, was heading back to Australia, so Whitton followed and wound up as head pastry chef at Melbourne’s Dinner by Heston until 2020.

In ever-irreverent fashion, he explains: “The upper echelon of culinary professionals in Australia of the last 20 years, their finishing school was a tour of the two-stars in London – The Ledbury, The Square, The Capital – work for those boys, do a stint with Ramsay and Heston, then go back to Sydney and call an eggplant an aubergine.”

When Dinner by Heston closed at the beginning of the pandemic, Whitton found himself working at Woolies. Way’s entrepreneurial brain was ticking: how could she put his talents to work?

First, she did a good old-fashioned flyer drop, targeting apartments in their area. “I said he was the ex-head pastry chef of Dinner by Heston and we’re making tarts: you can choose one of two flavours. Just one order came through and it was for two quarters – one of each flavour. I was like, ‘Gareth’s gonna be so mad.’”

Undeterred, Way posted on a community Facebook page – then things went nuts. She’d find 100 requests in her inbox overnight, but Whitton could only make 20 portions of tart, given their limited home kitchen. They maintained this for a year before moving into their first shop in Collingwood, though Whitton remained reluctant at first.

“For most young chefs, the bastion of achievement is to have their name across the door,” he says. “But the more I learned about running other people’s kitchens, the risk and the pressure was a deterrent.”

Going niche by specialising in tarts comes with pros and cons. There’s the lack of freedom, and the punch to the ego when people wander in, take a look and walk out again – not something you experience working in fine dining. But there’s also security in the fact that Melburnians love a good bucket list destination.

Having worked at Lune Croissanterie in Fitzroy at the end of pandemic, Whitton could appreciate that. “It’s almost like a mental game,” he says. “You’re convincing your potential customers that if you’re only doing one thing, then you’ve gotta be doing it pretty well, right?”

Tarts Anon also keep things fresh with collaborations: from creating a seven-layer chocolate tart with Koko Black’s Remco Brigou for World Chocolate Day to sharing its Cremorne site with Pedla, a cycling apparel brand.

“It’s about constantly staying relevant,” Whitton says. “One business can do one thing, another can do another, and it’s almost like having a third new business, particularly if you’re doing a new location.”

Way agrees. “It’s probably the main perk of the of the job. It pushes you in terms of creativity.”

This progressive way of approaching business – along with having a snappy social media presence (fast-cut videos of Whitton making a mulled wine tart or visiting country bakeries) – isn’t an easy transition for lifers in the hospitality industry.

“You tread a fine line between maintaining your integrity as an industry professional and crossing over into a celebrity profile,” Whitton says. “I feel like there’s room to flirt with it, but so few do it with a plan. As soon as you start flogging teeth whitening kits and shit like that, you’ve gone too far.”

Whitton won Dessert Masters with an elevated rhubarb tart with lemon verbena and pepperberry, followed by a wattleseed and chocolate mousse entremet. More rewarding than the title, he says, was the backstage bonding with Amaury Guichon, Adriano Zumbo and Kirsten Tibballs (who’s now on speed dial for any chocolate woes).

“It triggered this level of inspiration that’s been behind basically everything we’ve done since.”

He’d only just finished the manuscript for the cookbook Tarts Anon: Sweet and Savoury Tart Brilliance when he went on the show. The 50 recipes run the gamut of his talents, and there’s a hefty section on nailing techniques. Whitton’s proud that it captures one era of Tarts Anon. Eventually it will just be part of a larger body of work.

“It opens the door for a sequel,” he agrees. “When that comes out, I’m sure people will be like, ‘I hate the new Tarts Anon. I prefer the original.’”

This article first appeared in Domain Review, in partnership with Broadsheet.