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Never has a pudding been spoken about in such reverent tones. It was "legendary", "amazing", "a favourite", "you have to try it".

Due to its highly complex structure it was used to test the skills of Australia's Masterchef finalists. Its name was vague and magical in equal measures: the snow egg. It conjured up an icy fairytale and a hidden treasure. It was sure to be a let-down.


Nevertheless, my hosts at The Quay restaurant in Sydney -- Vivid Sydney organiser Ignatius Jones and Tamara Sperling from Events New South Wales -- were so persuasive about chef Peter Gilmore's creation that I decided to give it a shot. What arrived was a miniature goldfish bowl with an exquisite egg sitting atop a bed of crystalline granita.

As I cracked open the egg shell, it wouldn't have been completely beyond the realms of expectation for a tiny unicorn to have cantered out. At the centre of the egg was a yolk of custard apple ice cream. This was surrounded by two hemi-spheres of soft poached meringue playing the part of the egg white. The crunchy shell was achieved by taking a blow torch to a malt biscuit and moulding it around the meringue. The guava-flavoured granita provided the snow into which the egg was nestled. Under that lay a tart layer of guava fool.

The combination of the soft meringue with the cold richness of the ice cream, the crispy almond shell and the icy freshness of the snow turned my mouth into a veritable Fun House. It was a whole lot of fun and the prize to be won was that of blissful satisfaction. It was Pat Sharpe and the twins and the Power Prize all at the same time.

There's a video of it being assembled above, and if you want to try it at home, there's a recipe here. Otherwise it's a mere 22-hour flight to Sydney for the pleasure.