South Australian baker Paul Triglau has taken out top three honours at an international baking competition held in Italy last month.
The Sigep World Bread and Pastry Cup in Rimini, Italy, brought together the best bakers from around the globe to compete in the intensive four-day competition.
Paul, who was one of four bakers making up the Australian team, is only the second South Australian to have ever been chosen to represent Australia in the highly coveted competition.
Australia came first with the showcase category, which was a display of all the products made – bread, cake and an artistic piece, and took out third place in the competition overall.
Hungary came out on top in the competition, followed by Germany in second place. Italy won the competition in 2009 and therefore weren’t eligible to compete.
Paul, who has recently returned from two weeks in Italy, says to get recognition from peers on the international stage was a dream come true.
“It’s the ultimate reward for what has been an intensive lead up. I trained every second weekend for three months in addition to my regular baking commitments,” Paul said.
“The competition attracted tens of thousands of spectators each day, which was just astounding. They take their baking very seriously and it’s just such an amazing feeling to not only be surrounded by the world’s best bakers but to legitimately be recognised as one of them.”
To qualify for the international competition, Paul competed for South Australia in the bread and pastry competition, Le Coupe Down Under, where his outstanding performance saw him selected to represent Australia.
There were three different categories in the international competition – bread, pastry/cake and artwork in dough. Within each category the teams were required to make a traditional product and an innovative product representing their country.
Each day had a time limit of six hours with a plate up of each product being judged by a professional jury of 14. The products were also judged by the public and the two scores were aggregated.
“We made sourdough loafs using a very under utilised grain called triticale milled by Lauke flour. It’s considered to have impressive health benefits and responds very well to sourdough fermentation and is perfect for our arid conditions,” Paul said.
“We also created what we called a raspberry pearl – a white coverture truffle with shortbread, masala sponge and raspberry cheesecake made in the shape of a pearl.
This was presented in two chocolate clam moulds joined together with the truffle acting as a pearl,” he said.
Paul is behind the boutique range of bread “Paolo’s”, which was created six years ago to fill a void in 100% sourdough breads in Adelaide. The Paolo’s range includes rye, wholemeal, white and some flavoured breads such as grain, olive, fig and fennel and fruitloaf. The range is available at many specialty grocers across Adelaide.
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