very excited about it. It’s a tradition I hadn’t heard of before until I went to France a few years back it sounded quite cool. A few of my European friends get very excited at the thought of receiving these things so I thought I would try and incorporate those types of flavours.
Tell us a bit more about the dish itself and the elements of it:
I wanted to use the flavours from the St Nicholas tradition and try to incorporate them into the dish.
Are you looking forward to the final:
I am. I'm a little nervous though as I haven’t entered a competition before.
What do you think will be the most challenging part of the day:
Because I haven’t done anything like this before, I guess it’s making sure I do everything without letting the pressure get to me. You don’t know what it’s going to be like on the day so it’ll probably just be things like making sure I get there on time and stuff like that.
This year the final five will be invited to re-create their entremet in front of a live audience in the recently opened TheTasteLab by Classic Fine Foods. The panel of judges which includes Pastry Chef for TheTasteLab by Classic Fine Foods London, Denis Dramé MCA and Valrhona Pastry Chef UK, Luke Frost and last year’s winner Maxime Michelot, who joins the judging panel as President of the Christmas Entremet Contest 2016, will then select the winner based on taste and appearance.
The winner will fly to New York for a 2 day hands-on training course at L’Ecole Valrhona Brooklyn. The prize includes flight tickets to New York and accommodation for 4 nights.