Profile
Profile
If you give it a red-hot crack and em - brace baking as not only a trade but also , an art form , who knows , you might fall in love with the field . As they say , do what you love and you ’ ll never work a day in your life . them . I feel as though they allow me to enhance my skills and become more adaptable and innovative within my own life as a baker .
APB : What matters most during the jury ’ s decisions ? JR : The jury has a challenging job in judging the competition . However , what I believe is important in their pro - cess is observing the aroma , flavor , tex ture and overall look of the loaf . They also take into account other key aspects , such as organizational skills in working in the space you are given , as well as hygiene , which involves how clean you work within the time limit . I believe that these are all important areas of the overall process involved in producing products and , from what I have experienced , the juries take into account all of these things with thorough ness and attention to detail .
APB : What advice would you give to someone who is just starting the profession ? JR : In terms of advice , I would recom - mend that they jump into it and have a go . You need to practice making pro - ducts you love and try to learn as much as you can about the machinery , in gre - dients and processes involved in ba - king . I believe that learning along the way about why things are done and the way they are provides a strong understanding of the fundamentals of ba king . It also provides a strong foun - dation to perfect processes and pro - ducts and work towards becoming innovative within the field to experi - ment with new products and embrace creativity . I would say that the bottom line is that skill comes with time and practice . It is an ongoing journey and I know I will be striving to perfect and hone my skills for a long time to come . photos : Five Spice Creative Media
APB : How do you balance technique with discipline and creativity ? JR : In terms of my own technique , I believe that I have a lot of room for improvement but I also think my tech nique is fairly good . I believe that the har dest part is balancing crea - tivity with technique in order to produce the best products . As a glo - bal trend within com petitive baking , the use of stencils and scoring of loaves has become quite common . So the chal lenge can be doing this in a way that is unique , as well as beau - tifully done in terms of tech nique , allowing you to de mon strate innova - tion and skill , whilst ke eping up with con tem porary baking trends . Ad ditio - nally , as there are so many ta lented bakers on the global baking scene , it can feel over whelming some times to main tain that high stan dard , staying creative and in novative with different new trends , such as utilizing different dough and putting mo dern spins on dif ferent products , whilst still main - taining a high level of qua lity product . I believe that this ba lance is what the jury aims to see and I believe that it is discipline in training that allows you to achieve this . This means prio ri - tizing both ele ments in the training and develop ment pro cess , including the time de dicated to both playful crea tive pro cess , as well as spending time consistently practicing production of pro ducts , perfec ting each time along the way . It is this ba lance of all three elements that I believe is ne - cessary to achieve suc cess in such a talented and tough com petition such as Coupe Du Monde . l
“ Developing new ideas for products that have never been used or seen before can put on some extra pressure to present new and innovative ideas . All of these elements of competitive baking add to the challenges of the journey .”
BISCUIT WORLD • Spring 2016
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