Tarts Anon Cremorne

Tarts Anon was founded in 2020, in the midst of coronavirus lockdowns. Gareth Whitton (former head pastry chef at the now-closed ritzy Dinner by Heston restaurant) had been baking at home to keep busy when his partner, Catherine Way, realised he was onto something special and convinced him to start a business.

The first week Whitton made two tarts (a choc-caramel and a cherry-almond) and sold a quarter of each. The following week, he made 10 tarts and sold them all. Soon after it was 20, then 70 once he moved into the kitchen at Collingwood co-working space Worksmith. Each drop was announced on Instagram and sold out almost instantly.

Nowadays, at this light-filled shopfront in Cremorne, Whitton’s banging out around 200 a week. When he’s not winning the inaugural season of Dessert Masters, he’s working out the back here or at the Collingwood outpost. Meanwhile, the front-of-house space serves his classic and inventive tarts by the slice, as well by coffee by Square One.

Look out for familiar flavours like classic lemon, vanilla custard, and smoked pecan and butterscotch. Then there’s the crowd favourite: a gooey caramel and chocolate custard tart with a dulce de leche base, which Whitton developed in 2015 while working at a gastropub in Sydney. (The recipe for this showstopper appears in Broadsheet’s cookbook, Home Made.) If one slice isn’t enough, take-home tarts by the half or whole can be pre-ordered online.