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'When French-born and trained pâtissier Johann Vanier lost his job as head pastry chef at a pastry wholesaler, he decided it was the perfect opportunity to take a crack at his own pastry business. Since moving to Sydney with his Australian wife Benita, Vanier had tasted too many floppy, overly sugary pavlovas. So he decided to improve on the classic meringue-and-fruit formula – and thus his company La Pav was born'...

'Each hand-crafted dessert is like a tiny fairytale house in itself: tufts of meringue are piped with cream, scattered with rose petals, raspberries and cut hazelnuts, and cut open to reveal a layered interior filled with more fruit and cream. Flavours include chocolate hazelnut; raspberry, rose, white chocolate and macadamia; vanilla, almond and raspberry; pina colada; lemon meringue and basil; and two vegan flavours – another, dairy-free chocolate and hazelnut flavour and an orange, yuzu, coconut and almond creation'...

"It's funny, you know," says Johann Vanier. "Pavlova is the number one cake in Australia, but it's so hard to find a good one in Sydney."

Controversial words from a French-born pastry chef, but according to Vanier, most traditional pavlovas are too gooey inside, and "really, really sweet". They're also built too high. "Six centimetres of cream and meringue to one centimetre of fruit is not a great ratio," he says...