"When I was doing all the trials, I cried for months because I couldn't get it right," the award-winning chef says.
He initially attempted it in late 2018 at his Pyrmont restaurant, LuMi Dining. When Zanellato served his first successful pithivier there three months later, the tears might've stopped – but the pain didn't.
He was using a rolling pin to incorporate butter into the dough and it was a "nightmare", Zanellato says. "All my hands were destroyed." Another chef had bruises all over his fingers and palms.
Alyce Bennett and Ben Milgate at Humble Bakery in Surry Hills with their pink finger buns.