John Ralley and Steven Anderson met in 2001, working as apprentice pastry chefs in the Southern Highlands.
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Ralley went on to work at Michelin-starred restaurants in the UK and was featured in the 2011 tome The New Patissiers, which focused on the work of 38 pastry chefs around the world, while Ralley devoted himself to bread-making and the science of production.
They remained friends and vowed to open a business together.
That day arrives next week when they open Textbook Boulangerie-Patisserie at 274 Botany Road in Alexandria.
"When we were starting out, the head chef used to say 'textbook' when we did something well. It stuck," Ralley says of the choice of name.
The former head pastry chef at Sydney restaurants Manta and Wildfire says there will be a few surprises: "We'll do an apple crumble, but it won't look like one."
