Winning streak leads to Bakery of the Year win
By Cynthia Daly
Sitting at the Baking Industry Association of New Zealand (BIANZ) annual awards dinner on Saturday night, September 5 there were more than a few people totaling up the category results trying to pre-guess the overall winner. Had they been betting people, the recent past form of a particular entrant may have alerted them, but then there are some pretty impressive competitors in the national baking competition. So when the announcement finally came, “and the winner of the 2009 Bakery of the Year is Ten O’Clock Cookie Bakery and Café” the cheers virtually lifted the roof of the Duxton Hotel in Wellington where the BIANZ conference was being held. In the past three years Ten O’Clock Bakery has won The Easter Bun Bake Off (2007, 2008 and 2009); last year its apprentice baker Chris Martin won the first Weston Milling Trainee of the Year competition, and quite unrelated to baking skills, one of Ten O’Clock’s staff members won the biggest Lotto prize ever awarded in New Zealand. Receiving the award, Ten O’Clock baker Michael Kloeg praised his staff and gave thanks to God before gathering up everyone for a mass photo of the Ten O’Clock team. Later viewing the winning products it was easy to recognise the skills that earned this prestigious award. Also standing proud at the podium on September 5 was Sarah Harrap, winner of the 2009 Weston Milling Trainee of the Year award. Sarah has been studying baking and patisserie at AUT in Auckland for 18 months and last year was placed second in the inaugural Weston Milling Trainee of the Year. Judges of the Weston Milling Trainee of the Year commented on the strong competitive edge to this year’s competition and this showed in the increased standard of products being produced. Competitors had to make a quiche, bake and decorate a cupcake, make a Turkish-style bread from scratch and make an item using Weston Milling products. Judge Graham Heaven said that each of the items showed different skill ability and to get them all to a standard of excellence would definitely be a challenge. “Making the Turkish bread or ciabatta, the dough needs to be spongy, soft and have the right amount of water. You’ve got to develop it to a stage where it is not over proved. To make this bread normally you would allow four hours, these bakers have to produce it in three hours as well as produce their other products. They are working in a different environment to what they are used to and they’ve got to share the ovens so there is a lot that they have to plan for,” said Graham. In the Bakery of the Year competition the challenge was to follow the instructions – there were instant disqualifications for anyone who didn’t – but first competitors had to get their products to Wellington in one piece, looking amazing, a challenge in itself. One competitor discovered how difficult this step in the process could be. They marked their box for the courier ‘Baking Conference Samples’. It was delivered to the hotel but the word ‘sample’ saw the box delivered to the kitchen where the chefs ate the contents! When the error was discovered the baker had to frantically bake and send another lot of entries. Congratulations to all this year’s winners!