PH pastry chefs wow judges in France

REALIZING a dream begins with a vision, followed by setting goals, then working hard everyday, no matter the obstacles, towards reaching those goals and achieving that dream. This is true for any enterprise. And it was true for the Pastry Alliance of the Philippines.

Chefs Buddy Trinidad and James Antolin joined the Asian Pastry Cup 10 years ago and said, “Within 10 years, we will field a team to the World Pastry Cup.” And they did.

Dream realized

Ten years might seem like a long time but it was a realistic timeframe for the goal because it is not easy to qualify for the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie (World Pastry Cup).

For one, it is the biggest gathering and most prestigious competition of pastry chefs around the world, described by its founder Gabriel Paillasson as “the Formula 1 for pastries.” Case in point: at the 2015 Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie, only 21 countries qualified to compete. Australia, which has some of the best chefs and restaurants in the world, did not even compete this year.

More notably, even the world’s greatest chefs have a hard time getting the gold.

At the Bocuse d’Or, a parallel competition of chefs from around the world, which was the finale of the Sirha Summit, the American team this year won the silver medal but it was the first year that the Americans placed higher than sixth in the international competition.

And they only got up to silver even if the team was led by such established chefs as Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud and Gavin Kaysen.

Best ice sculpture

So it was with great pride that the Philippines waved its flag among the 2,500-strong audience of the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie held last Jan. 25 to 26.

But even better, on their first try, the Philippines brought home the special award for best ice sculpture.

The carving skills of chef Vicente Cahatol impressed the judges so much they had to give him credit.

The ice sculpture was of a little boy hunter carrying a deer. “What is amazing about it is that he sculpted this from memory,” chef Peachy Juban, one of the coaches of the team, noted. “The other candidates were using measurements but Vic just sculpted away.”

The prowess of Cahatol in sculpting was displayed not only in the ice sculpture competition but also in the new category of chocolate sculptures.

Valrhona provided blocks of chocolate weighing 10 kilos each for the competition and each team had to sculpt this block.

In this round, chef Miko Aspiras, another one of the coaches, noted, “Other teams chopped up the chocolate, made parts of the block the square surface for their sculptures but Vic did not break up the block at all.”

Cahatol created a chocolate sculpture of the Philippine bayawak.

It was so unique and creative, with such exquisite detail, that while the Philippines did not win the special award for this category, it did get a special mention from the Valrhona representative and the bayawak was a favorite photo of the international media, making it to various French newspapers.

Good ranking

On top of this special award, the Pastry Alliance of the Philippines, which essentially was the Philippine delegation to the competition, was proud to announce that the Philippines ranked 12th out of the 21 countries.

Vice Consul Rapunzel Acop, of the Philippine Embassy in France, who supported the Philippine team and joined them in Lyon, observed, “It’s incredible for a first-time competitor. We beat all the Latin American countries, the entire Arab world and even China.” Argentina, Mexico and Colombia ranked 13 to 15 (in that order) while China trailed at 17.

Note, too, that no Southeast Asian country has ever won a gold medal in the competition. So that is the next goal of the Pastry Alliance of the Philippines: to bring home the gold in 2017.

Philippine Pastry Alliance

The other two chefs who competed on behalf of the Pastry Alliance of the Philippines were Rizalino Mañas Jr., who created the entry for the chocolate showpiece; and Bryan Dimayuga, who was responsible for the sugar showpiece.

They were required to create a chocolate showpiece, a sugar showpiece, one carving piece, a chocolate cake, a plated dessert and a chocolate block carving within a period of only 10 hours. But way before that, the team, with the coaches, already conceptualized the creations under the competition’s “Life Cycle” theme. The results were creations with a unified theme of “hunters and the hunted” entitled “Siklo.” Mañas created a beautiful Filipina hunter out of chocolate, while Dimayuga created a stunning sugar showpiece of the Philippine spotted deer. These creations were amazing beyond words.

Credit goes as well to team president Buddy Trinidad and vice president James Antolin, as well as senior pastry chefs Peachy Juban, Dan Basilio, Jackie Ang Po, Miko Aspiras and pastry artist extraordinaire Penk Ching, who were all present in Lyon to guide and support the three chef-contestants. I was also surprised to find Filipinos like chef Dennis Hipolito in the audience, who flew all the way from Singapore on his own, just to support the team. “This is the first time that the Philippines competed. This is history,” he said, explaining why he could not miss the event.

Props must be given to the Pastry Alliance of the Philippines, who fielded this team without government support, raising funds and spending their own money for practice sessions, as well as airfare to and lodging in Lyon, France—all in the name of bringing pride to our country in this field.

Sirha 2015

The pastry competition was not the only event at the Sirha World Hospitality and Food Service Summit. The finale was the Bocuse d’Or, the most prestigious competition of chefs the world over, won this year by Norway (silver went to the US and bronze to Sweden). I heard that the Philippines last year through Le Toque Blanche tried to field a Philippine team but lost to Singapore. Hopefully, we will be able to wave the Philippine flag as well for Bocuse d’Or in 2017.

But Sirha was not just about competitions but more importantly, the four days of the expo is all about trade. The Eurexpo of Lyon, France was filled with over 2,000 exhibitors, a few product launches and the World Cuisine Summit, where the most pressing culinary issues of the day were discussed.

At the last Sirha, there were over 185,500 professionals on the lookout for new trends including almost 25,000 visitors from 138 countries. It is truly the largest gathering of food service and hospitality professionals from all over the world to note the latest trends and innovations.

In a few days, the Philippines will launch Madrid Fusion Manila in Spain. Watch out for the details next Sunday. Who knows, if we are successful at Madrid Fusion Manila, France might look to us as well to host Sirha for Asia.

Congratulations once again to the Pastry Alliance of the Philippines. You make our country proud.