The Bakery Masters … created an exciting and emotion-charged atmosphere for the assembled audience. The professionals who had agreed to take part in the world’s first contest of this type were faced with long working days. Three categories of bakers demonstrated their talents, many of them having distinguished themselves in that same domain during the Bakery World Cup in 2008: Bread, Viennoiserie and Artistic Creation. One Master Baker was selected for each category.
Of the various speeches given at the start of the Masters award ceremony, we noted, in particular, the address given by Patrick Lesaffre, Director of Lesaffre and Compagnie and Japanese Consul, who highlighted the work carried out by Jean-Paul Broutin who has directed Europain for over 20 years. Patrick Lesaffre underlined the extent to which the Bakery World Cup, as well as the Louis Lesaffre Cup, have helped promote the show and contributed to its international reputation.
The presence of one individual in particular could not fail to go unnoticed: Peter Becker, President of the International Bakery Association who expressed his pleasure at being present at Europain for the Bakery Masters. He reminded the audience that the competition gave centre stage to bakers’ talents and that events such as these safeguard baking quality and serve as an example to the younger generation.
The judging panel demonstrated an even hand in its evaluations, taking account of the consistency, presentation, taste, volume and artistic quality of the different entries. In short, the products were all of a high quality, demonstrating an excellent understanding of working techniques for exceptional results.
Jean-Paul Broutin reminded us that great oaks from small acorns grow; it was during a conversation with Christian Vabret, Meilleur Ouvrier de France in Baking that he first came up with the idea for the World Cup: a high-level sports-style competition, organized
within the framework of the Europain show…
Patrice Mora thanked all the members of the EKIP Union who provided all the equipment required for the Masters, as well as the product manufacturers. He also thanked the firm Lesaffre, without whom the event would not be possible. Patrice Mora went on to congratulate the participants in the Bakery Masters for the quality of entries produced. Finally, he expressed his pride in the fact that Europain serves as the venue for an event of this calibre. Lastly, Mario Fortin, Honorary President of the competition, rounded off his short intervention with the following encouragement: “Believe in your dreams, always do your best and you’re well on the way to success!”.