Shigeo Hirai, sous chef at the Grand Hyatt in Tokyo, has been named World Chocolate Master 2009 by an international jury at the Salon du Chocolat Professionnel exhibition in Paris.
In second place at last week's competition was Lionel Clement, chef chocolatier at Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, and in third place Michaela Karg from Cafe am Kreuzgang in Feuchtwangen, Germany. The UK’s Mark Tilling finished seventh out of 19 contestants.
He said: "There’s always things you could have done better, and have done better, but overall it went well, no major collapses or anything like that."
Organised for the third time by Cacao Barry, Callebaut and Carma, the World Chocolate Masters is the world’s most important competition for chocolatiers and pastry chefs. Contestants create six pieces over three days, including a large chocolate showpiece, an intricate cake called entremet and moulded and dipped pralines. This show’s theme was Haute Couture.
Tilling has now competed twice in the competition so he is not eligible for the next Chocolate Masters in 2011. The UK pre-selections are set to take place this time next year.
"There’s a lot of young blood coming through,” he said. “The 2010 pre-selections are going to be really interesting.”
James Petrie, the Fat Duck’s pastry chef was in Paris to see the competition and to gain inspiration for Heston Blumenthal’s new series of Feast, which will focus on bringing fictional creations of Willy Wonka to life.
“It’s totally out there so right up our street,” he said. “The show pieces are not quite edible so I think some chefs struggle to get to grips with it. It’s worth gaining an understanding though as it does have relevance for chefs working in restaurants. I’m particularly interested in how they make the structures stand up, that’s going to be helpful research for the Feast programs. I’d love to see one of my boys here, the amount of preparation is truly amazing, it must take years of planning to make the structures.”