Hotelympia 2010
As my first blog as Acorn Scholar 2010, I thought I'd tell you a little bit about me before telling you about this past weekend's Hotelympia competition.
I'm a pastry chef at the award winning Bachmanns Patisserie in Thames Ditton and have worked there for 2 years along side 3 other pastry chefs and occaisionally the renowned Ernst Bachmanns who has trained some of the modern great pastry chefs. Long before working at Bachmanns I began my culinary career at The Fat Duck at 15 when I did a work experience week with Heston that would change my life forever! Continuing through school and A-Levels, I then began my degree at Thames Valley University where I met my tutor and mentor, Yolande Stanley MCA. Yolande introduced me to WorldSkills and I will blog soon about WorldSkills. I finsihed TVU with a 1st Class Honours degree before flying to Japan alongside 25 other young skilled men and women to compete against the rest of the world at the prestigious four day competition. By the end of it, I became the first British pastry chef to win the coveted Medallion Of Excellence and gaining 6th place beating the likes of France, Germany and Switzerland. Last year I was awarded the Young Chef Award by the Craft Guild of Chefs.
After Japan I wanted to keep competing and last weekend saw the Hotelympia competition at ExCel in London. Hotelympia is a major hospitality show that happens every two years and encompasses the Salon Culinaire de Londres which is a collection of static and live competitions. On Sunday I was competiting in my first senior class at my first Hotelympia. Having worked frantically on my tea pastries the week before at work which included a Coffee and chocolate pyramid, Passionfruit and Strawberry charlotte, cherry and chocolate linzer tart and pistachio choux bun amonst others, I was extremeley pleased with my Silver medal position.
Getting good constructive feedback from the judges was excellent and I will certainly learn from this for next year's Hospitality competition at the NEC. On Monday and Tuesday I was privilidged enough to be asked to judge similar competitions both in junior and senior classes. I thourghly enjoyed the judging experience as I learned lots of new skills which will hopefully also help me for competiting. On the Monday I also did a demonstration along side Yolande (me mentor) and Alistair Birt, who alongside Yolande, I helped train for the 2009 WorldSkills in Calgary (which I was also at in a UK Ambassadorial role to the Premiere Experience). He also won a Medallion of Excellence and has become a great friend. Demonstarting different chocolate techniques included a "Ready, Steady Cook" style competition which saw both me and Alistair make a centre piece out of chocolate against the clock. A great afternoon and well received by the audience. On the Tuesday I judged the UKSkills "Search for A Star" competition which is the first heat of the competitior shortlisting process for the next WorldSkills competition in London in October 2011. All the competitors did extremely well and I am looking forward to seeing them compete at the National final in April.
Bachmanns were very proud and pleased of my achievements at Hotelympia and so it's been back to work with preparations in hand for Easter with eggs coming out of all our ears ready to hit our shelves for Mothers Day.