West Australian artisans have scooped first place at the 2009 Australian Artisan Baking Cup.

Held at the annual Food Service InFocus Expo in the Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre, the competition for bakers from across Australia was won by Trevor Sims from The Cake and Cookie Company and Rob Howard from Howards Patisserie.

In both the team event and as individuals the two men from the west scored very highly with the judges.

Industry stalwart and creative design director for team bakery Australia, Leon Bailey, said this year’s entries were of a very high quality.

“The judges at the competition put forward some very big scores this year. The scores really reflect a standard which has exceeded previous years and one which reflects what is expected internationally,” he said.

Competitors in the competition were required to create and bake five styles of artisan bread, five different Viennese pastries and yeast goods and an artistic bread centrepiece based on the theme ‘bread as a symbol of Australia’.

Second place at the competition went to the Newcastle team which included Dean Gibson, Lodewijk De Winter and Janet Aislabie while third place went to the South Australian team including Nick Davey and Jeremy Mavromatakis.

Winners from the competition will go on to form an Australian team at the 2010 SIGEP Red Cup competition in Italy. SIGEP is the largest professional trade fair in the world dedicated to gelato, confectionery and bakery supplies.

Bailey said in recent years there had been a renaissance in interest in artisan baking from consumers which has led to a revival among bakers.

“It is being driven by consumers. I believe that the modern educated consumer is looking for products that taste good and are good for you which come from old styles of cooking and baking.”