U.S. team finishes second in bake-off
May 1, 2002 - The San Jose Mercury News
PARIS - With 12 teams and four kitchens facing television cameras and a packed seating gallery, the World Cup of Baking is something of a cross between Iron Chef and a Krispy Kreme shop.
Held every three years in Paris as part of Europain, Europe’s giant trade show for bakers, Le Coup du Monde de la Boulangerie brings together three-person teams and their coaches to compete for the title of best bakers in the world.
Team USA, which took first place in 1999, came to defend its title but finished second to Japan at last week’s competition. Still, members said they were pleased with their showing.
“Our team did consistently well across all three judging criteria,” said coach Craig Ponsford, owner-baker at Sonoma’s Artisan Bakers. “I was really impressed with the way everyone pitched in to deal with any problems we had.”
Ponsford, who won for “best baguette” in the 1996 competition, is the same “hands-on” coach who led the U.S. team to victory in 1999. The selection process for this year’s team began just after the last competition ended. Besides Ponsford, the team members were captain Tim Foley, owner of Bit of Swiss Pastry Shoppe in Stevensville, Mich.; Tim Healea, bakery operations manager at Portland’s Pearl Bakery; and Ciril Hitz, a baking and pastry arts instructor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I.
Since their selection, they’ve spent hundreds of hours practicing and have taken most of the past 18 months off from their jobs to prepare for the competition. Foley left Bit of Swiss in the hands of his co-owner and wife, Pat; Healea was covered by his employer, former Team USA member Greg Mistall; and Hitz was sponsored by the Bread Baker’s Guild of America and Johnson & Wales.
During training, they worked with Ponsford, as well as French-born Didier Rosada, head instructor at the San Francisco Baking Institute, and one of Rosada’s co-workers, Jeff Yankellow, the team’s primary recipe tester.
“The team really needed to work to come up with the best high-quality products—products they were proud of and out of the ordinary,” said Rosada.
On April 12, after appearing on the “Today” television show, the team flew to France to adjust for atmospheric conditions, such as altitude and potential differences in yeast.
At this year’s event, Team USA’s competition included the formidable Japanese team, as well as teams from Uruguay, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Finland and of course, France. Teams competed in three categories: baguette and specialty breads; viennoiserie (pastries); and artistic design, which means the creation of bread sculptures—using only edible ingredients and sugar-based glue—that fit in a one-square-meter cube.
Countries went all out in creating sculptures focused around the theme: “Bread: Our National Identity.” Japan’s sculpture featured a meticulous garden, complete with bridge, a blossoming bonsai cherry tree and a towering Mount Fuji in the background.
The United States’ entry, designed by Hitz, featured the flowing stripes of the American flag. To create it, the team gently draped a thin, three-dough “flag” (one for a base, and one for each color of stripe) into a cradle, and then baked it.
“It was a great way for us to display the U.S. as a melting pot,” Hitz explained.
Switzerland took a more lighthearted approach with a sculpture that included a long-jump skier in perfect “V” formation, flying through the Alps.
In the bread category, Team USA featured its Mount Hood Bread with candied hazelnuts on the inside and a sifted flour snowcap, baked by Foley. Japan created baguettes that were works of art, with golden honeycomb-like interiors. And the baguettes made by Team France looked just like the breads that have been made by French bakers for hundreds of years. Nevertheless, they didn’t finish in the overall top three.
In the end, Team USA beat out Belgium for second place this year. Were the team members disappointed? Certainly, but in the end, no one was there just to win. “We’re really happy with the high quality of the competition and the great feeling between the teams,” said Ponsford.
Joe Ray is a freelance journalist in Paris. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
