The Black Forest Gateau has some competition this weekend as the latest edition of the Pastry Chef of the Year competition announced another two finalists: the 23-year old Roman Aster from restaurant Esszimmer at the BMW World Munich won the exciting third semi-finals, followed by Adrian Jeschall from Kursaal Bern Meridiano. They both won over the tasting and the technical judges and now hold their ticket for the finals at Anuga in Cologne in October, where they will have the chance to compete against the other candidates from Hamburg and Cologne. The two last finalists will be nominated in Vienna in June.
Before the event, technical judges Miguel Contreras, Marcus Hannig, Alexander Krob and Patrick Lorenz have chosen the five best candidates out of 56 applicants. The highly motivated pastry chefs and their assistants went through the five-hour competition to complete a challenge with three components: tarragon, goat’s milk and white chocolate; one freestyle dessert and one praline/petit four. The most accomplished performer was Roman Aster with his creation of buckwheat, red cabbage and honey. His personal style was also reflected in his praline of passion fruit, saffron and olive and the three-component dessert. Second place went to Adrian Jeschall, who created a dessert of avocado, tarragon pasta and goat’s milk with white chocolate, which was wonderfully refreshing, according to the judges.
The tasting judges were: Pierre Lingelser, René Frank, Christian Hümbs, Matthias Mittermeier, Andy Vorbusch and Benjamin Kunert, who blind-tasted all the contestants’ creations.
The following five talents gave their all at the third semi-finals in Achern:
Roman Aster: Pastry Chef in the Esszimmer**, BMW World, Munich
Jens Hildebrandt: Pastry Chef at restaurant Reinstoff**, Edison Höfe, Berlin
Adrian Jeschall: Pastry Chef at the Kursaal Bern Meridiano*, Bern, Switzerland
Michael Klein: Pastry Chef at Hotel Vitznau, Vitznau, Switzerland
Tatsuya Shimizu: Pastry Chef in Steinheuers Restaurant Zur Alten Post** Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler
Over 300 guests came to watch the spectacle and they were well looked-after. The morning brunch was Black-Forest-themed and guests were able to taste a variety of delicious snacks and sweet morsels.
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