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Kiwi Cows Roaming on Christmas Cakes

-         Final of Fonterra Bakery Challenge 2008

Chef from The Mira Won Gold Award

Hong Kong – 29 October, 2008 – The final of “Fonterra Bakery Challenge 2008” ran successfully at the Hospitality Industry Training & Development Centre, Pokfulam (HITDC) yesterday.  After the breathtaking competition and stringent judging, the winners are selected. Stanley So Tung Po, pastry Chef and his teammate, Hayes Lam Hoy Sing of The Mira Hong Kong obtained the Gold Award whose mark was just 0.4 points ahead of the Silver Award winners. Roy Tse, pastry chef & his teammate of The Royal Garden obtained the Silver Award while Tsui King Cheong, pastry chef with his teammate of Hong Kong Nikko Hotel got the Bronze Award. Besides, Lai Kin Wai, pastry chef of Morton's of Chicago obtained The Best Media Selection Award which was voted by the all press attended yesterday. (please refer to the winners list).

To compete for the championship, eight shortlisted pastry chefs from renowned hotels, cake chain stores and western restaurants in Hong Kong and Macau showcased their pastry skills and creativity by making their unique Christmas cakes within two hours, using various Anchor dairy products.  The competition was very exciting and breathtaking.  After going through stringent scoring system by the panel of judge, all awards were presented to winners.

The Gold Award winner, Stanley So says, “I am excited to take part in such a professional bakery competition, and I’m so lucky to receive the Gold Award – especially when I learnt my score was just 0.4 points ahead of the Silver Award winner. To create my Christmas cake for this competition, I decided to break  away  from the  traditional  presentation.

Instead, I opted for modern simplicity.  I also added different layers to enrich the taste and texture.of the cake. For these, I selected fresh orange scent to enhance the flavour of the cake.  In fact, every finalist’s pastry skill is high level which drives me to keep up with improvement. I hope to join the similar contests in future and expect to have breakthrough in performance as well as exchange creative ideas with other participating pastry chefs.”

“Every participating chef shows his/ her talent, creativity, proficient pastry skill and professional attitude in the competition.  Their Christmas cakes surprise and impress all the judges with the cakes’ colour, taste and presentation.  These cakes look great, and taste is even better,” said Mr. Tony Wong, one of the panel of judges and the Executive Pastry Chef of Royal Garden Hotel, “It is hard to select the best one among the outstanding recipes. Therefore, we try to judge the cakes by different aspects, such as the practicality of selling and packaging them, their presentation, taste, and how well the cakes were related to the Christmas theme.  As a member of the bakery profession, I am delighted to see so many talented chefs join the competition.  I am sure the competition helps to uplift chefs’ bakery skills, their creativity also inspire the others, through sharing of experience, which will benefit the bakery industry. ”

“Fonterra Bakery Challenge 2008” is organized by Fonterra Brands (Hong Kong) Limited and is endorsed by the Hong Kong Bakery & Confectionery Association as well as the Hong Kong Chef Association. The competition is open to all professional chefs.

Ms. Cortina Sin, Foodservice Manager of Fonterra HK says, “This is our first time to organize a professional bakery competition. We aim to provide a platform for chefs to unleash creativity and demonstrate ingenious pastry skills.  I’m so impressed to see so many attractive and delicious Christmas cakes using various Anchor dairy products.  The chefs’ talent completely matches our slogan of this competition - “Challenge your self-potential, and unleash boundless creativity”. Being a dairy supplier, we commit to provide the best quality and natural baking ingredients to every chef.” 

“All our dairy products are from New Zealand, the pollution free country and keen on environmental protection, New Zealand is rich of natural resources.” Cortina Sin,

proclaims, “Cows in New Zealand are pasture fed freely.  Dairy products made from pure,

will provide natural nutrients including Beta Carotene and Conjugated Linoleic Acid fresh milk source are beneficial to health. On a daily consumption basis, our dairy products (CLA). “Based on medical research, CLA helps to enhance body immunity, accelerate bone metabolism, reduce risk of heart disease, and maintain good vision. CLA is particularly effective in fighting against cancer.” says Ms. Cortina Sin. “Through chefs’ unique cooking preparation every dish of cuisine will not only delight customers’ taste buds, but will also contribute to good health.”

A professional panel of judge was formed to ensure a fair judgment of the competition, comprising Mr. Tony Wong, the Executive Pastry Chef of Royal Garden, Mr. Yves Matthey, the Executive Pastry Chef of Mandarin Oriental, Mr. Andreas Muller, the committee member of the Hong Kong Chef Association and the Chief Instructor (FP-W) of HITDC, as well as Ms. Louisa Ho, the President of Hong Kong Bakery & Confectionery Association Ltd.

About Fonterra Brands (HK) Ltd.

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Nowadays people are more conscious about the food they intake because they want a healthier life.   As a higher demand for the healthy foods and diets market rises, vegetarianism becomes more prevalent and popular.  Taiwan has been promoting vegetarianism for years; yet, there’s a need of a more detail and in-depth plan to implement such program.  The 2008 International Vegetarian Culinary Competition was organized by two of the most prominent religious groups in Taiwan, Fo Guang Shan Temple and Tian Tai Shan Temple.  The aim of the event is to combine religion and culinary art in joint effort to promote delicate and high standard vegetarian food and tourism in the region.  The supporting organizer is the Taiwan Kaohsiung County Government.  Kaohsiung County is a place in Taiwan with substantial number of religious groups. 

It was an honor for the Hong Kong Chefs Association to participate and received good results in this competition.  The competition took place over two days and was divided into three groups, namely the Professional Participant Group, Non-professional Group and the Youth Group.  The Hong Kong team was categorized in the Professional Participant Group and competed on the first day of the competition, October 26, 2008.  The four participants took part in three different classes of the competition.  Chef Mak Kam Kui, the team leader, competed in the Individual Western Style Amuse Bouche Platter Cold Display.  Team member, Chan Chun Wang, Ivan, competed in the Individual Western Professional Main Courses Cold Display and the Team Western Professional Three Courses Set Menu Cold Display with the team pastry chef, Tammy Fan.  Lastly, team member, Ho Man Yan, Jean, participated in the Individual Western Professional Appetizer Cold Display.  All members were required to apply gelatin work for cold displays and non gelatin for tasting portions for each of their own dishes.  Likewise, there were prohibited ingredients being used, such as shallots, garlic, onion, leek and chives.  On top of that, all recipes must be displayed with their nutrition facts and calorie details for judges’ consideration.

The Hong Kong team was very lucky to have started and finished the competition in a favorable result.  This well-achieved completion of four gold medals and cash rewards to the Hong Kong team wouldn’t have been so successful without all the informative comments and suggestions and support from many culinary professionals.  This is namely the group of culinary assistants selected by the president of the Taiwan Formosa Chefs Association, Chef Tony Chang.  The Hong Kong team was fortunately assigned with couple Taiwanese culinary student assistants to ease their preparation in the unfamiliar kitchen at the Tian Tai Shan Temple.  These kind and wonderful Taiwanese culinary students were exceptionally efficient in helping the Hong Kong team looking for ingredients and provided them with immediate needs at all times throughout the competition.  The accommodation provided and organized by Chef Tony Chang for the Hong Kong team was also well appreciated.  This was another priceless and rewarding experience of sharing culinary skills and creativity in fine vegetarian food for the Hong Kong team.        

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