Silver for Belgian pair at World Cup for bakers in Japan
As one of the five pairs in the final, young multi-award-winning baking talent Berre Ceuppens from Pelt and his experienced former teacher Stijn Van Kerckhoven from Sint-Jozef Geel headed to the prestigious World Cup for bakers in Japan. They rightfully returned home proud with a silver medal. And they had been within touching distance of the gold.
The pair passed through the preliminaries with flying colours, an accomplishment in itself. Along with each time two colleagues from France, Peru, China and host country Japan. The final of the two-day Mondial du Pain competition was a tough challenge against the clock. On day one, the pairs had to prepare their fillings and dough in an hour and a half. The trickiest part, completing several baking tests, was reserved for day two. In 8.5 hours, they had to come up with a brioche, croissants, nutribread, baguette, a healthy snack and a completely edible ornament with sports as the theme. Our compatriots opted for a Formula One piece that was nearly one metre tall.
Berre and Stijn are overjoyed and enormously proud of the silver award, and of the prestige and honour that comes with it. They owe that in part to their coach Guido Devillé, president of non-profit organisation Aspirant Baker, the Flemish organisation promoting the bakery profession. The home players took the gold, but then they were able to prepare well with the raw materials and equipment. Although, once again, our team won the world title in the nutritional bread category.