Belgian pastry chefs win European gold

25/01/2016

The Belgian team of pastry chefs Arnaud Nicolas and Mathieu Dierinck have won the European Pastry Cup in Geneva. This means the duo also qualifies for the world championship pastry making on 22 and 23 January 2017 in Lyon.

The two Belgians competed against Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Russia, Lebanon, Turkey and Switzerland. The participating pastry makers received different assignments to showcase their talents: two desserts with fruit, ten desserts with chocolate and an artistic piece from sugar. As a finale, they were asked to make a sculpture from a piece of chocolate weighing 23 kilos and a height of 50 centimetres.

"It is mostly a matter of taste. It is the taste that makes the difference when assessing the candidates", says Gabriel Paillasson, chairman and founder of the world cup pastry making. "Because pastry making is mostly a matter of flavours." 

After the winning Belgian duo, Danish and Swedish pastry makers completed the stage. Just like Belgium, they have now also qualified for the world cup pastry making in 2017. Arnaud and Dierinck will also compete against 17 other countries, from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

It isn't the first time Belgium has won. In the past, our pastry makers have once won the gold, three times the silver and 3 times the bronze medal.