The finalists for the 2018 Savour Patissier of the Year competition have been announced ahead of the annual event taking place at Foodservice Australia on 27 – 29 May.
Thirty patisserie professionals from around the globe will gather at ICC Sydney to take part in the competition, which was developed by internationally renowned pastry chef and owner of Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School, Kirsten Tibballs.
This year, competitors will travel from as far as USA, South Africa, Canada and Israel for the event. Over three days, the finalists will present dishes across four categories: tarts, éclairs, desserts and entremets.
Critiquing their work will be Frank Haasnoot, World Chocolate Master; Melissa Coppel, award winning chocolatier; Jerome Landrieu, director of the Callebaut Academy in Chicago and Paul Kennedy, executive pastry chef at Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School.
The winner will receive $15,000 cash and over $30,000 worth of prizes, along with the itle of Savour Patissier of the Year 2018.
The 30 finalists are:
Adrian Pagano
Audrey Dufay
Chelsea Logan
Dmitriy Shurygin
Esteban Garcia
Ganesh Iyer
Guillaume Lopvet
Jacob Pelletier
Joel Gonzalez
Johann Vanier
Kai Luo
Kevin Gully
Kevin Lui
Melanie Day
Michael Oksinski
Nathan Baker
Nicholas Cochran
Pei-Ling Huang (Kristy)
Phillip Khoury
Raquel Rivera
Robin Wagner
Rony Hertzano
Russell Le Comte
Septian (Ian) Prayitno
Stephanie Ceronio
Steven Cheung
Tat Man Ricky Wong
Travin DeHoedt
You-Ming Tseng
Yu-Ju (Ruby) Hsu