Gareth’s passion for pastries, bread and beautifully executed sweets earned him a cult following at the hidden gem in Mayfield East, where loyal customers would hunt down his almond croissants, lemon bundt cake and famous chocolate tart like treasure. While the doors to Covered in Crumbs have now closed, Gareth’s story – and his baking – are far from over.
If you haven’t tasted Gareth William’s ultimate chocolate tart… the one where the sweet pastry shell is filled with baked chocolate mousse and salted caramel, all coated in tempered milk chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt and cacao nibs, well, you really haven’t lived. Gareth could happily chat for hours about the culinary journey that has led him to finally setting up his own shop in one of Newcastle’s coolest circa 1941 buildings; The Muster Point Collective in Mayfield East.
The treasure hunt down back alleyways to find Covered in Crumbs is well worth the effort when the reward involves lemon curd bundt cake and almond croissants. But for owner Gareth, the road to now hasn’t been all butter icing and custard tarts. Years of specialised chef training, a commitment to enduring tough bosses and long hours in the kitchen, have made his current success, all the sweeter.
Growing up in Nelson, on the South Island of New Zealand, Gareth was surrounded by good food and wholesome cooks in the form of his parents and grandparents. “I think being exposed to so much delicious food from a young age made a real impression on me,” says Gareth. “My family always made everything from scratch and just eating super simple but delicious meals made me know that I wanted to work with food when I grew up.”
Scoring his first job as a dishie at just thirteen, Gareth worked in the kitchen of a local café, which operated as a homemade pizza restaurant at night. What started as a weekend job soon turned into a couple of nights a week of food prep, then cleaning the kitchen from 5am before school and heading back there to work after the bell rang at the end of the school day. Gareth knew he had caught the hospitality bug. “I worked there for three years. At school, I took every subject related to cooking, like science, because I was interested in how everything worked with ingredients, hospitality, health, and maths too,” explains Gareth. “I was young but I’d already passed my school work, so eventually I was given permission to leave school early at sixteen to begin an apprenticeship at a great high-end café, under Nigel Buxton. He’s been a chef all over the world and is still a great friend and mentor of mine today.”
“My family always made everything from scratch and just eating super simple but delicious meals made me know that I wanted to work with food when I grew up.”
From that point, Gareth’s life was a whirlwind of culinary study and mastering the basics of cooking. After finishing his apprenticeship, Gareth considered moving to Wellington or Melbourne in chase of new restaurant challenges but after a trip to a local travel expo, he bought a one-way ticket to London instead. “I’d just turned twenty and was lucky enough to be able to travel first, knowing I had already lined up a job in London, thanks to a connection my New Zealand boss had,” says Gareth. Then, when an opportunity came up to work at The Ivy specialising in pastry, Gareth jumped at the chance. “My boss, the head pastry chef Eliza, was a scary woman who really put me through my paces and honestly, the first three months were hell,” remembers Gareth. “She broke me down to build me back up again, and after twelve months, I was the only original chef still working because everyone else didn’t last under the pressure.”
His experience was true to how some Hollywood movies depict the intense world of fine dining. Gareth said some nights he was sending out his last dessert at 1:30am, after starting work at 6am the morning before and knowing he had to be back for his next shift a few hours later. “The Ivy is in London’s theatre district, so it was busy all night and sometimes there was no point going home to my apartment because I’d have to jump back on the tube and be at work again,” says Gareth. “Even though it was really tough, I learnt so much and it made me hungry to be the best pastry chef I could be.”
“The Ivy is in London’s theatre district, so it was busy all night and sometimes there was no point going home to my apartment because I’d have to jump back on the tube and be at work again.”
So how does a Kiwi chef, working in top London restaurants, end up in Newcastle? Simply put – love. After meeting his Aussie wife-to-be abroad, the pair decided to relocate back to her hometown of Newcastle once her visa expired. Here, Gareth spent time working at Nor East, then at the Queens Wharf Brewery. He was a chef at Subo during its initial eighteen months when it was awarded two hats and was the resident pastry chef at Restaurant Mason for four years. “I was given free rein to rework the dessert menu from the ground up and was in charge of all the bread work, cultured butters, chocolate work and desserts. It was a really great time in my career,” recalls Gareth. Gaining notoriety for his desserts, Gareth also took out the prestigious Hunter Culinary Food Fight competition, cooking a modern take of a rice pudding dessert with rhubarb, pomegranate, goat’s curd sorbet and pain d’epice. It was then, that Gareth decided to take the first tentative steps towards launching his own business and Covered in Crumbs was born. Selling his guitar and borrowing five thousand dollars from a supportive friend, Gareth took the plunge and held his first pop up stall at The Sherwood.
It was a complete sell-out. “I had this amazing network of people encouraging me to give it a go. My father-in-law helped me build our market stand, my friend Ben Neil from Newy Burger Co was completely behind me and the TAFE, where I was doing some teaching, let me use their equipment to cook. Of course, my wife Paula was amazing, working behind the scenes in addition to her day job as a teacher,” says Gareth. “Eventually I quit my full-time job and started supplying ten cafés with wholesale sweets. I was also doing a pop up each month plus the markets. I developed a great following so finally; I knew it was time to open our store.”
Gaining notoriety for his desserts, Gareth also took out the prestigious Hunter Culinary Food Fight competition… It was then, that Gareth decided to take the first tentative steps towards launching his own business and Covered in Crumbs was born.
Falling back on his profession as a fine dining chef, Covered in Crumbs is all about enhancing the basics but with that high level of quality, textures and flavour combinations expected in restaurant desserts. Gareth is constantly experimenting and pushing the envelope with his creations whilst allowing his customers to feel a nostalgic connection to his food. “Our lemon curd tart will hopefully remind people of something they’ve eaten as a child. But with our unique spin of roasted blueberries under the curd and tempered white chocolate with freeze dried fruit, our tart provides that complete mix of sweet, sour, and salty,” says Gareth. “We make all our fruit gels, jams, curds, custards and batters that are inspired by the seasons, so you end up with a really well-rounded, delicious product.”
People drive across Newcastle and beyond to taste Gareth’s treats, so the online ordering system, which started in the second Covid lockdown in 2021, has been a welcome addition for customers who fear missing out.
“People come with a specific tart in mind or for an Apple Pie Bostock and its disappointing if they’ve already sold out,” says Gareth.
Falling back on his profession as a fine dining chef, Covered in Crumbs is all about enhancing the basics but with that high level of quality, textures and flavour combinations expected in restaurant desserts.
And while Covered in Crumbs may have closed, Gareth has already started a fresh chapter – Crumb. With the same dedication to quality, nostalgia and flavour that made his first venture a hit, Crumb ensures you’ll still be able to get a little Gareth magic – one perfectly flaky pastry at a time.
Want to read more about Gareth’s new cafe Crumb with Newcastle legend Ben Richardson (of Autumn Rooms fame)?
Grab a copy of Swell Issue 24 here
