France wins 2013 World Pastry Cup

France has won the 2013 World Pastry Cup in Lyon, while the UK team came ninth and were awarded the prize for best poster.

The French team now take home a specially designed trophy, the gold medal and €21,000. Japan and Italy took second and third place and win €12,000 and €7,000 respectively. 

The UK team were awarded ninth place - a repeat of the country's 2011 placing. They were also given the best poster prize for their 'Lost Worlds' poster - the accolade was voted for by visitors to the competition's website.

The result may come as a slight disappointment to the trio who worked together to deliver what many believed was one of the strongest ever UK entries.

Ahead of the contest, team president Martin Chiffers had told BigHospitality he believed the UK could come in the top seven.

Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie

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The UK's entry for the 2013 World Pastry Cup

The 13th Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie took place over the last two days at the SIRHA hospitality trade show in Lyon. Twenty-two teams are tasked with creating a set of chocolate and ice cream desserts as well as three sculptures of ice, sugar and chocolate.

Each team has three members who all have just 10 hours to deliver all elements of their entry - three desserts using Valrhona chocolate, three fruit-based ice cream desserts using Ravifruit products, 12 identical plated desserts, sculpted ice, a sugar creation to display one of the ice cream desserts and a chocolate creation which must incorporate one of the chocolate desserts.

Marks are awarded for taste, work method, hygiene, time keeping, organisation, skill and presentation of the final buffet. 

Special prizes are awarded for the best ice sculpture, best chocolate, best sugar, best poster, team spirit, best promotion and the best team as decided by a jury of members of the press which included Tim Hayward of The Financial Times.

Team UK 

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The UK World Pastry Cup team for 2013

In a nod to the UK's entry to the European Pastry Cup, in which the country won all the awards, the individual elements of this year's effort centred around a 'Lost Worlds' theme with sugar ammonites adorning the Valrhona chocolate desserts - the France-based firm is one of the main sponsors of the competition and also supported the UK team in its preparations.

The UK team was captained by Javier Mercado from Le Cordon Bleu London who prepared the sugar elements of the entry. Fellow Le Cordon Bleu lecturer Nicolas Belorgey made the ice sculpture and Nicolas Bouhelier, pastry sous chef at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons was the team's chocolate expert.

They were led by Martin Chiffers, team president and former executive pastry chef at The Savoy, who was a member of the jury which judged all this year's entries. 

Attention now turns to the UK's effort in the Bocuse d'Or which takes place on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 January, also in Lyon. You can follow the progress of Adam Bennett and Kristian Curtis on BigHospitality.