Some of South Australia’s best professional bakers were put to the test when the Royal Adelaide Show’s Professional Baking competition was held.

Held on September 3, with with official presentation taking place on September 8, the competition once again saw an incredibly high standard of entries.

Chief Baking Judge and Allied Pinnacle baker Michael Prowse said he was very fortunate to step into the role.

“This year I was very fortunate to be asked to stand in as Chief Judge of the Royal Adelaide Show Baking Category. David Latty from Tecnoeka Ovens is normally Chief Judge, but he was representing the industry at Fine Foods,” Michael said.

Prove Patisserie was a force to be reckoned with, and were awarded both the Baking Association of Australia Prize and the Tecnoeka Prize Champion Product of the Show with their chocolate hazelnut danish.

Michael said the danish was one of those products where the quality was immediately obvious.

“Judges were stopping each other during judging to try it, because there was so much going on in the product,” he said.

“It had excellent texture variation, from the laminated pastry through to the filling, with really deep, developed flavour.

“I don’t want to give too much away for anyone who gets to try Ella Knightley’s product, but it was a very impressive danish. Ella also took out the Moi International Prize Champion Apprentice/Trainee/TAFE Student Champion Award for the same product, which makes the result even more impressive.”

The Village Baker took out The Peerless Foods Prize Champion Sweet  Goods title, while CJ’s Bakery won The Peerless Foods Prize and The Tecnoeka Prize Apprentice Special Incentive Award.

Banana Boogie Bakery won the Standard Pastie category.

Michael described the pastie as very flavourful.

“They use a good size diced vegetable with ample meat with a beautiful puff pastry that was flaky with great lamination,” he said.

“The winning croissant from Euraidla Bakery was perfect with great lamination and honeycomb crumb structure that we would expect from a gold medal croissant, but along with that was the outstanding flavour of the butter used in the croissant.

“Overall the judges were extremely pleased with the standard of the entries, particularly the quality coming through from the apprentice and trainee categories.

“It is exciting to see the [skill and innovation] coming through in the next generation of bakers.”

The full list of Professional Baking winners can be found on the Royal Adelaide Show website.