Spain was the winner of the World Pastry Cup held in Lyon, France, in January. Jordi Santacreu, Josep Guerola and Julien Alvarez are world champions with their themed pieces, Tanagine Express. Spain also won the best dessert. Italy achieved second place with a very strong campaign and Belgium just squeezed out Japan to take third place with a crocodile theme.

There were 20 teams composed of three pastry chefs, a chocolate specialist, ice carver and a sugar specialist. The team also had to produce three ice-cream frozen desserts, three chocolate entremets and 12 plated desserts representative of the traditions and latest trends of the represented country in 10 hours of competition time.

The competition was held in the new Paul Bocuse hall and packed with supporters of the 20 countries that participate in this world event.

Star City Casino executive pastry chef and Team Pastry Australia technical trainer, Barry Jones travelled to Lyon for the world pastry cup.

“The competition was extraordinary, the level keeps on getting higher and with the entremets, dessert and ice-cream cake we were blown away. On saying that, Australia can be competitive on the world stage at the next comp in 2013,” Mr Jones said.