Innovation is Served

Creativity was on the Menu in France at the First Coupe du Monde de la Viennoiserie

By Jimmy Griffin

In November, I served on the technical jury for the inaugural World Cup of Viennoiserie in Parc Chorus – Vannes, France from November. South Korea, Switzerland and Canada took the first three places at the three-day competition that featured teams from 14 countries and is proposed as a biennial event under the new name Coupe du Monde de la Viennoiserie.

This competition specialized mostly in the art of Viennoiserie to the exclusion of bread, which would normally be a part of competitions like this. Candidates had to make an assortment of laminated and non-laminated Viennoiserie products. These were of various quantities and weights, which I will detail later in the article. Additionally, a prebaked and unassembled artistic piece was part of the competition and had to be assembled on the day. Including the important topic of waste management, the scraps had to be used up to create a product representing a culinary identity from the contestants’ countries.

The rules were devised to examine and determine who had the best overall skills in several disciplines; that included fully hand-laminated traditional French-style croissants from start to finish. No sheeters were permitted in the process by the candidates in the preparation of the butter (Beurrage) or in the sheeting, folding and cutting and formation of the croissant triangles. Additionally, the croissant had to be a crescent shape in classic French style. This was a first for hand-making croissants at a world class event and challenged the skills of the artisans from the word go. The teams were drawn as follows: (see chart 1)

Chart 1

Each team consisted of a baker and a coach, and each candidate had two and a half hours of preparation the day before the competition from 16:00 to 18:30 (4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m) followed by six hours from 09:00 (9 a.m.) to 15:00 (3 p.m.) of production, assembly and presentation on competition day. The coaches were allowed to stand in front of the work areas, but were not allowed to assist or touch any elements produced by the candidates. Contestants had to use the theme of “Tomorrows Trends” in their work, particularly in the artistic piece, which had to include some of pastries made in the competition as part of the elements of the artistic presentation. The three product categories consisted of: (see charts 2, 3 and 4)

Chart 2

Chart 3

Chart 4

Product Type #3 Artistic Piece	Product Name	Dimensions	Quantities required
1	Artistic Piece	No limits weight Size, a maximum of 50  50  70 cm.	1

The artistic piece creation could include many types of “edible” dough, provided that the colors were restricted to the color spectrum of flour, ranging from white, cream, yellow, brown, and grey to black. Participants received color cards as references. The artistic piece had to adhere to a specific size and fit in a rectangle with a length (50 cm) width (50 cm) and height (70 cm). Only the front side (70 x 50 cm) was open, so the artistic piece could be viewed. The organising committee provided a power supply for pieces, which included illumination. There was also an additional category for overall professional conduct and hygiene, evaluated as follows (see chart 5)

Chart 5

The bakeries were very well equipped, and sponsor Société Bongard did a wonderful job kitting the individual work booths. Each bakery area had a new convection oven, proofer, blast chiller, refrigerator, laminating machine, rack and trays as well as a generous sized worktable. There was also additional space at the back of the booths for ingredient storage, and the artistic piece parts for assembly later in the working day. Moulin Jugon les Lacs was the flour sponsor, Domori was the chocolate sponsor, and the Butter sheets came from Elle & Vire. Cesarin was the ingredient supplier to the event.

The jury consisted of two separate tiers

1. Technical Jury members.
2. Tasting Jury members.

Each candidate provided a booklet with recipes, methods and product photos for the jury to inspect. This is common practice for competitions, and it gives the participants a chance to showcase their work in advance and create an expectation for the jury of what they will see at the end of the competition. However, all products and photos in the booklets were created in a known venue with known ingredients, flours etc. There was the added challenge of using new and sometimes unfamiliar equipment and the pressure of a live event, with competitors on each side, jury members walking up and down and a large element of noisy spectators cheering on their teams. Those pressures can cause mistakes. Ah… I remember it well during my competitive years: the pressure, the deadlines, the highs and the lows. But I also think this experience allows me to connect better with each contestant, since I was one, myself, earlier in my life.

My role with the technical jury was to watch and mark all the products made, including the artistic piece, and to monitor the candidates each day for the full duration of the competition, a total of 8 1/2 hours per day. The tasting jury on the other hand was made up of the coaches from each country. Their work started at the end of the competition, and they tasted and evaluated all products. (They could not allocate marks to their respective countrymen or assist in any way.) Each day, the marking sheets were submitted to a dedicated “Lawyer” or “Bailiff,” who inputted the results into a master spreadsheet in the jury room.

After three days of exhausting competition, clear winners emerged:

• South Korea (Gold): Jihyun Yung and Cyril Gaudin presented excellent stencilled Viennoiserie and an artistic piece android that combined technology, flowers and pastry to symbolize the harmony between innovation and human sensitivity.
• Switzerland (Silver): Nicolas Moret embodied Swiss excellence and precision in his work through a perfectly balanced artistic piece, along with stunning colourful and innovative Viennoiserie.
• Canada (Bronze): Damien Agliata, baker at La Shop à pain in Terrebonne, also won a special first prize for best brioche representing Canada with his maple cream and toasted pecan brioche, shaped as a maple leaf.

I have to give a nod here to the organizers, especially because this is an inaugural event. The competition was founded by Jean Francoise Devineau, President of Pâtissiers dans la Monde organization, Stéphane Henrio, President of Salon Chocolate and Pâtisserie, Vannes; and Sebastian Lagrue, Vice President of Pâtissiers dans la Monde and World Champion Chocolatine. The organization is Trademark and registered, with the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI) with the Coupe du Monde and Coupe de France competitions suite.

It has always been my thought that all candidates who qualify to compete in a competition at this level are winners. Getting to this level involves sacrifice, dedication, hard work, commitment and support of a coach and sponsors. It could not be done with all the above and everyone is to be congratulated for not only competing, but also for raising the bar on innovation and showing the world what is possible when the cream settles on top.

Photos by Jimmy Griffin

(This article appeared in the Winter 30 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)