UK Sugar Championship | The Restaurant Show

Jamie Houghton from Le Manoir Aux Quat saison, Oxford is crowned the winner of the first UK Sugar Championship Junior chef after five hours of competing against five others, under the age of 26, at The Restaurant Show in Earls Court today. Organised by the UK Pastry Club the event was a battle of skill as each junior chef prepared an artistic sugar sculpture judged by famous pastry chefs each with high skills in sugar works themselves:

Florian Poirot, Confectioner at Nestle and Patisserie Consultant
Michael Nadell, from Nadell Patisserie
Javier Mercado, lecturer at le Cordon Bleu London
Paul Williams MCA 2013 , Senior sous chef pastry le Manoir Aux Quat saisons Oxford
Denis Drame MCA 2013 , Head Pastry Chef - Exclusive Hotels and Venues

The criteria was strict as the six finalists had to create a sculpture that:

Fitted on to a 45cm x 45cm base
Was no more than one metre high
Consisted of at least one flower and one ribbon.
Used different techniques including blown sugar, pulled sugar and used a isomalt.

The theme however was more relaxed with the only instruction being something that 'celebrated the art of sugar'. This meant it was up to the six to interpret this how they wanted which therefore meant the judges would be looking for a sculpture which fit in line with this theme as well as harmony, neatness, cleanliness of work and innovation. Before the event Benoit Blin MCA , UK Pastry Club Chairman, said: "The UK pastry club is very proud to bring the first competition

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of its kind at The Restaurant show. “We are all really excited to see the best of our youngsters in the industry showcasing live, a beautiful skill which is pulled sugar craft.”

Michael Nadell from Nadell Patisserie spoke about the art of sugar during the event, he said: "I've been working with sugar for over 50 years, techniques have changed over 20 years from sugar to isomalt; which we can see this modern style on show here today. "We will never go as far as we can with sugar, when you think you've come to the end of all you can do something new comes along." Jamie competed against these five other chefs to win the UK Sugar Championship Junior Trophy:

Rudy Kwun Wing, YIU - Hotel Café Royal - London
Alannah Doe - The Address, Dubai
Florian Quinette - Nadell Patisserie - London
Pablo Ruggero - The Thomas Cubitt - London
Félicien Christe - The Savoy - London

Rudy won third place and Pablo came second each winning a cash prize from the restaurant show and the UK Pastry Club.

Commenting on today's competition Benoit said: "It has been a fantastic competition if we look at the result, today we've got 26 years old and under producing six beautiful pieces which I'm sure the UK didn't know they had; so great talent coming up for the future. "What we wanted to do today was create a platform for youngsters to be able to express a new skill in sugarcraft and we've had a great result today."