Team Australia won third place at the Asian Pastry Cup in Singapore.
The team, which consisted of TAFE SA lecturer Justin Williams, Sydney pastry chef Sonia Yu-Ting Siu, and team captain Yves Andre Sherrer put their months of training and painstaking preparation to the test at the Asian Pastry Cup in April, ultimately winning third place.
Yves said the team trained for three days every second week for six months on top of 20 hours a week individually.
“Training involved the design of the showpiece, the design of the cake and plated dessert and, once we agreed on what it was going to be, we had to repeat it over and over,” he said, adding, “The chocolate cake was made about 50 times and each showpiece at least 40 times each.”
The team completed dry runs of the full competition seven times and drew on feedback from industry masters such as Andre Sandison and Dean Gibson for inspiration.
Yves said it was the extensive preparation that ensured the team’s success on the day.
“Everybody was very committed and trained very hard. So on competition day, we were ready to face the usual competition issues without too much struggle,” he said.
The team battled power issues, which made cooking the sugar difficult, and an exploding spray gun to create the 18 desserts, two modern gateaux and the sugar and chocolate showpieces within the eight-hour time limit.
Coming in first and second were Malaysia and Singapore who, along with the Australian team, have now qualified to compete at The Coupe du Monde in France next year. Known as the Olympics of pastry, The Coupe du Monde is the biggest and most prestigious competition for the international pastry industry.
Yves said training for Coupe du Monde will be much the same as training for the Asian Pastry Cup only this time they need to work on an “unusual concept” to do something different.
“Wish us luck!” he said.
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