Chunk Provisions is not just any old gelato shop. It’s the project of ex-Morny Bakehouse co-owner Sophie and former Morny head chef Renee – so experimental (and delicious) creations are to be expected.
And no, there won’t be viennoiserie here — so don’t come expecting pastries — but “people will recognise some of the flavours because you don’t change who you are as a chef,” Renee says. “Actual viennoiserie?” says Sophie. “Nooooo. We don’t have the facilities to bake and to roll, and that just isn’t something we want to do.”
So what will be on the menu? When punters step inside, there’ll an immediate decision to make. “We’re splitting our menu into both a ‘curious’ and ‘purist’ take on ice cream,” says Sophie. “So in the purist, you’re gonna have your pistachio, your vanilla, stuff like that.”
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“And then in the curious side, we’ve got the soy sauce and salted caramel, toast and marmalade,” says Renee, and even “mushroom and white chocolate,” adds Sophie, “which won’t be on the launch menu, because people need to trust us.”
There’ll also be olive oil verbena sorbet, with “a cassis pate de fruits, a super intense fruit flavour, but not jammy,” says Renee. “It sets solid like a fruit pastille,” adds Sophie. “There’s more flavour, less sugar.”
When I swung by on opening day, the elevated menu included cherry and ricotta, black sesame and soy, and tiramisu. I can vouch for the raspberry ripple and dark chocolate brownie batter — “cooked at 64 degrees,” says Sophie — which is unctuously rich, chewy and tangy.
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How did they pick the store’s unique name? “We both really like movies,” says Sophie, “and Chunk is the iconic character in [1980s Spielberg film] The Goonies. It’s nostalgic in the same way that ice cream is: there’s a scene where he gets trapped in a freezer, but can smell the ice cream before he gets in there. And it just summed up everything. That tagline, “I smell ice cream” — that’s our Chunk.”
And as for the Provisions appendage? “It’s so we can keep our creative juices going,” says Renee. “At Morny, the bagged items were really popular and yet we never had time with all the viennoiserie. Here we should be able to make truffles, florentines, eventually our own nut butters, compotes, marmalade and pralines.”
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