The II National Pastry Chef Student Championship now has its panel of judges

The Spanish Confederation of Artisan Pastry Entrepreneurs (CEEAP) has confirmed the names of the five pastry chefs who will evaluate the work of the students who aspire to winning the second edition of the National Pastry Chef Student Championship. The competition, which promotes quality professional teaching for the pastry industry, will be held on the 25 and 26 February 2019 at Intersicop, International Bakery, Pastry, Ice Cream and Coffee Show, organised by IFEMA from the 23 to 26 February 2019 at Feria de Madrid.

The five professionals who make up the panel of judges are:

·        Andrés Mármol, renowned in the industry for his talent with chocolate and for his award-winning meat pie with beef cheeks, cooked at 90ºC for 15 hours. His passion for baking led him to produce, in the Confitería La Gloria (El Palmar, Murcia), creations such as the Murciatone, his local adaptation of the panettone.

·        Joan Baixas is a founding partner of Amazing Chocolate, a company whose aim is to democratise and to turn chocolate into an organoleptic experience. With over 34 years’ experience in the pastry industry, he was in charge for over two decades of the production of Baixas Barcelona, a benchmark pastry shop in Barcelona, founded by his parents in 1958.

·        Pablo Morales, a young pastry chef from A Coruña who, at only 17 years old, worked at Bubó alongside Carles Mampel. This is where his professional career began, and he continued in India, Kuwait and England. Using all that he learned in these countries, a little over a year ago he decided to return to his homeland and open his own business: Habaziro Concept.

·        Pepe Isla (Spanish Chocolate Masters 2015), fifth generation of pastry chefs at Casa Ysla, a business founded 120 years ago by Ceferino Isla, the inventor of the pionono, a typical sweet from the province of Granada, named after the Pope Pío IX. For this Granada native, chocolate is a product similar to wine, as it has different nuances depending on the crop or the season.

·        Raúl Bernal, currently the ambassador for the brand Chocovic and member of the 21º Brix group. Winner of the Lluís Santapau 2011 chocolate confectionery award, he teaches classes every year at the Chocolate Academy in Gurb (Barcelona) and is working on opening his first own shop in Huesca.

A total of 28 pastry schools (26 confirmed and 2 on the waiting list) from all over Spain have signed up for this successful competition. The 26 schools that will finally participate hail from Catalonia, Murcia, Asturias, Andalusia, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community, Madrid, Castilla y León, Galicia and Palma de Mallorca.

The candidates will have eight hours to produce nine pieces of choux pastry, filled and decorated for the presentation; two chocolate cakes with a minimum of three different components, and nine mille-feuilles (instead of the croissants required in the last edition) with a puff pastry base and two layers of filling of their choice.