The 2014-2015 Louis Lesaffre Bakery World Cup is now behind us, and I’m proud to say Australia had great success winning food critic William Wongso’s award and, importantly, the Young Bakery Category, thanks to a fantastic effort by John Reminis.

John will now go to Paris to represent Australia at the Bakery World Cup in the Young Baker Category.

This we celebrate. To have a young Australian baker attending Europain, and to be involved in the Bakery World Cup is amazing. We will work with our contacts in Europe to give John further training to continue his development and prepare him for the challenge ahead.

The Australian Team was unfortunately unable to achieve their goal to qualify for the Bakery World Cup in Paris. However, I must say as a coach, I have never been more impressed, or proud of a team, or group of individuals. The Australian Baking Team produced high-quality items in extremely difficult circumstances and, in the end, only missed out on qualification by 20 points in a total of 1000. They were at all times professional in their approach and conduct, and openly praised for their performance.

There is no part of their performance where I can say I was disappointed, or if we had done something different it would have made the difference – it was, in the end, personal preferences of the jury.

So much has been achieved through this process, however. We now have three more bakers with international competition experience, and a massive increase in skills and knowledge to pass on to those they come into contact with. These team members in the coming year will be involved in demonstrations and classes to help pass on the things learnt as part of the process. They have all committed to being involved in training, and mentoring the next team as well.

Southern Cross Baking Group continues to grow its base of experience and we look forward to continuing the relationships we have built with you all.

Thank you for all you support of the Australian Baking Team. Without you we could not have achieved what we did. Our work and focus continues as we prepare John Reminis for his Paris adventure.

As a thank you for all the support, the team would like to share a PDF copy of recipe books created by Fivespice Creative – the team’s photographer. We are going to release a hardcover limited-edition version combined with a photo gallery of the highlights of the experience. If you would like to pre-order your copy, please contact myself or one of the team.