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The UK Pastry Team survived a major technical hitch to fight off competition from five other nations and win the European Pastry Cup for the second consecutive time.
Team coach and President Martin Chiffers, captain Barry Johnson of Rococo Chocolates and sugar category specialist Nicolas Belorgey of Le Cordon Bleu made up the UK side that narrowly edged out Denmark with 1,351 points to their 1,230 in Geneva.
Sweden rounded off the top three with Switzerland, Russia and Israel further back.
Speaking about the weekend, Barry told The Staff Canteen: “I wouldn’t say everything totally went to plan! Our chocolate machine broke which meant we had to have an extended time frame.
“We were pleased to get over it. Myself and Nicolas needed complete concentration and to keep our heads down for five hours but we weren’t going to let it affect us.”
That is just one of the things can go wrong during a competition like this one and Barry was fully aware of focussing on the task in hand despite going into the competition as the holders.
He continued: “We were not complacent and thinking we would just go there and win. We knew we had put a lot of hard work in but anyone can win on the day. Live competition is all about keeping a steady head. Lots can come unstuck but we were very pleased to keep our concentration.”
There were prizes on the day with medals and trophies plus €4,000 for winners UK, €2,000 for Denmark and €1,000 for Sweden. As well as that, the top three now go on to compete in next year’s World Cup and Team UK had exactly one year to prepare for the event after winning their spot on Sunday. Barry is aiming for an improvement on the ninth placed finish in 2013.
He said: “We will of course go there with a hope to win. If you don’t then it’s not a good place to start! Realistically though a top five or top seven finish is our goal.
“Our main aim is that we don’t want any regrets. Spain (2011 winners) will have a strong advantage as they have had four years to prepare but the competition gets stronger every time. We will be keeping a close eye on the Asian Cup and American Cup to see who qualifies from there.
“We would like to thank all the supporters and sponsors, especially those who travelled over to Geneva at their own expense last weekend.”
Using the theme of British Musicals, Team UK produced a fruit dessert called ‘Lyceum’ which resembled the Lyceum Theatre, home of The Lion King in London.
For the chocolate dessert on a plate category, UK created “The Circle of Life” based around a ring of raspberry crèmeux and raspberry gel.
Denmark were awarded the special prize for Best Sugar Piece while Sweden were selected as having the Best Chocolate Piece but it was Team UK that triumphed overall.
