The Asian Pastry Cup

The first ever New Zealand Pastry Team has been formed to compete at the upcoming “ASIA PASTRY CUP 2012” in Singapore. This major international event is held in conjunction with the biannual Food Hotel Asia trade show, which will take place between 17th - 20th April 2012.  (www.asianpastrycup.com)

It is a competition within itself but also serves as the official competition at which four teams out of twelve from the Asia Pacific region are pre-selected to compete at the “WORLD PASTRY CUP 2013” (Coupe de Monde de la Patisserie) in Lyon, France.

At the actual competition, a team of two must produce one chocolate and one sugar showpiece of a high international standard, eighteen plated desserts and two chocolate Entremets all produced in a time of eight hours in a live competition scenario.

Where it all begun:

New Zealand is a small country where the Pâtisserie industry consists literally only of a handful of Pastry professionals. Many of them have immigrated to New Zealand for the beauty and relaxed lifestyle this country has to offer and not necessarily for the competiveness and high end Pâtisserie industry either on a national or international level!

The continuous development of the Pâtisserie industry in the Asia Pacific area and the introduction of the ‘Asian Pastry Cup’ in 2006 as truly first class Pâtisserie competition finally opened the door for New Zealand’s young and upcoming pastry chefs and like minded Pastry professional weighing up the possibility of representing New Zealand.

In 2007 Marcus Braun, Senior lecturer from the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology made a first attempt of forming a possible team. It was soon clear that through a lack of industry support and interest it was yet too soon to attempt such an undertaking.

It quickly became apparent that the future of New Zealand Pastry lay in the hands of our pastry chefs of tomorrow. Due to the initiative of like minded and experienced pastry chefs it was clear that there was a need to first build up a national identity by targeting local and national competitions which helped to develop our future pastry chefs.

Connecting and forming a team become a major focus. In March 2011 the first team was formed and Auckland was chosen as its base. It was decided to join alliance with the New Zealand Chefs Association to take advantage of its large network. This was necessary due to fact that most of the people involved were residents of Auckland.

Auckland University of Technology’s School of Hospitality & Tourism had then been chosen as practical training ground.

Who are we?

The New Zealand Pastry Team consists of:

Team Captain/Coach:  Björn Svensson  (Owner ‘Criollo Chocolates’)

Team Member 1:   Jie Min Aw  (Pastry Chef Sky City)

Team Member 2:   Bryan Bae  (Pastry Chef Sky City)

The official organizing committee consists of:

Business Manager: Robert Bok  (Executive Pastry Chef SkyCity)

Public Relation: Renny Aprea (Programme Leader AUT)

International Judging Adviser: Arno Sturny (Senior Lecturer Pâtisserie AUT)

Technical Support: Marcus Braun (Senior Lecturer Pâtisserie CPIT)

Finances/Accounting  Keith Clark (Financial Director NZCA)

The team itself has its own Gold Medallist; Björn Svensson a previous Pastry Chef of the Swedish National Team competing at the Culinary Olympics in 2004. This experienced pastry chef; owner of “Criollo Chocolates” has been

Arno Sturny and Renny Aprea of AUT are offering the appropriate training facilities helping the team to fulfil their obligations and creating a nurturing environment.

Marcus Braun the initiator of ‘competitions’ of lending his vast expertise in the area of technical support. Renny Aprea, together with Keith Clark forming the link necessary with the New Zealand Chefs Association.

It has been a long journey of discovery and hard work. We now have developed a network of support and are especially fortunate to have on board Reso Tech Foods, the best suppliers for all pastry products and equipment in New Zealand.

We are delighted that that their vision for pastry is in line with ours, trying to create the best possible working environment for pastry chefs and offering the best Pâtisserie products on the market.

Whilst we have not yet reached the state of internal national competitions of deciding of future team members we nevertheless began the journey of developing the future of Pâtisserie in New Zealand.