MasterChef leaves Bay in macaroon mania

For one MasterChef finalist, macaroons were the subject of nightmares, but the appearance of the pastel meringue biscuits in the popular telly show has made them the stuff of dreams for Tauranga foodies.
Macaroons, or macaron to the French, saw the demise of Jax Hamilton's MasterChef dream as the treats came plopping down from the tower she constructed in the final.
Now the sweet treats are popping up all over the Western Bay.
"All day, every day, it's macaron, macaron, macaron," Anna Kare from Yellow Place - French Cafe, in Picadilly Arcade, said.
"It's hard to keep up sometimes."
Ms Kare and her partner Fred Wasem follow the traditional French recipe and make a batch of about 100 macarons once a week.
"It takes me three hours to make the macarons ... and when I finish I put the rest in the freezer because it's very important that they are kept fresh," Mr Wasem said. "Everything I make, I make from scratch ... so everything is authentic and I'm very proud about that.
"I follow the traditional recipe exactly. I never change it for the Kiwi people because I think it's important to keep the French touch."
Argentinian Gonzalo "Gonzo" Marca, owner of Cafe Oviedo in Mount Maunganui, adds a South American touch to his macaroons and said they had become extremely popular.
"They're a bit different from the ones on MasterChef because I make them with cornflower. In Argentina they're called alfajor and they're very popular," he said.
The owner of Le Petit Four on Chapel St, Lisa Komene, said a lot of people were talking about macaroons.