Thanks to its chocolate centerpiece, Japan won the World Pastry Cup on Saturday, ahead of France and Malaysia, thus retaining its title at the end of two days of competition near Lyon, in the center of east of France.
Mereini Gamblin with AFP
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Published on January 25, 2025 at 10:06 a.m.,
updated January 25, 2025 at 10:13 a.m.
The Japanese, true to their reputation… Their discipline and perfectionism make them pastry chefs of excellence. “It's incredible!“, launched the Japanese team by climbing onto the first step of the podium, a fourth consecration since the creation of the competition in 1989, which traditionally takes place during the International Exhibition of Catering, Hotels and Food (Sirha), a major meeting for professionals in the sector.
“What really made the difference was the chocolate coin“, commented to AFP the famous French pastry chef-chocolatier Pierre Hermé, also president of the competition, greeting a team with a “real power, a real desire to win“.
France, although known for its sweet and savory gastronomy, comes in second position in the Pastry World Cup. Eighteen teams from all over the world, from Argentina to South Korea via Mauritius, competed in this final. Each team, made up of a chocolatier, a sugar expert and a master ice cream maker, had nine hours to complete three tests in accordance with a common theme: putting their country in the spotlight.
They had to prepare three frozen desserts made from fruit puree, a restaurant dessert served on plates.at the minute“, and finally, a shower of little chocolate-based creations, to be enjoyed like “finger food“. Three artistic pieces, true works of art assembled in parallel (one in sugar, one in chocolate and one in sculpted ice), completed the whole.
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© JEFF PACHOUD / AFP
Those of the Japanese team represented an imposing Japanese theater character, traditionally made up in red and white, a Japanese lantern, candy canes, again in the colors of the land of the rising sun.
Tears of joy for Japan, but of sadness for France which was unable to hide its disappointment by climbing onto the second step of the podium, the same as two years ago. “It's hard“, Franck Michel, coach of the France team, told the press shortly after.
The French, for their part, had created a triptych, including a sublime blue and gold rooster spreading its wings, perched on an ice structure engraved with a rosette.
The last two editions were won by Japan (2023) and Italy (2021). France won in 2009 with Jérôme De Oliveira, as well as in 2002 with Christophe Michalak.
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