On 16 July, 13 chefs took part in the inaugural Sime Darby Hudson & Knight Baking Masters Competition at the Southern Sun Centre for Culinary Excellence in Johannesburg.
The competition was open to professional chefs, culinary students and corporate teams, and each entry needed to include a Pastrex and a Mastercraft product. The competition set out to celebrate traditional baking excellence and attention to detail in flavour, presentation and creativity.
In the Culinary Student category, Amy Jayne Edwards from the 1000 Hills Chef School beat Callum Branfield (also from 1000 Hills Chef School) and Alicha Channon from Capsicum Culinary Studio in Centurion to win R10 000. The dish that secured the judges’ votes was a Dark Chocolate Buttercream Cake with Chocolate Shortcrust Base and Crumble Topping, Beetroot Frozen Yoghurt and Woven Puff Pastry Lid. Sounds delicious!
Another great show from KZN was Team Audacia Manor from Durban, who won the Team category with a simple yet beautiful dish of Apple Crostata with Crème Anglais.
Andrew Atkinson, South African Chefs Association Competitions Director and Head Judge for the day, said: “The standard of entries and the cooking on the day was extremely high, and we were very impressed in the judging room. Pastry is such a specialist art and it was a great pleasure to be involved in a competition that searched for and rewarded South Africa’s Baking Masters.”
Well done Amy Jayne!
