Barry Johnson and Nicolas Belorgey to represent UK in 2014 European Pastry Cup

The pair were announced as the UK team at an event at Yauatcha in London earlier today and will now prepare to compete in the European heat of the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie in Geneva next January. 

UK team president Martin Chiffers told BigHospitality the turnaround time was shorter this year with teams given three rather than five months to prepare for the competition, but as the competition's theme (musical theatre) remained the same it made the focus easier. 

"It's a tough competition, but having a theme set already gives everyone a bit of an advantage," he said. "Last time we had to re-invent everything, but this time we are part of the way there.

"Barry and Nicolas will have a lot of practice to do, but with every competition practice makes perfect and I'll be there to guide them through."

Competition​

Each team competing in the European Pastry Cup has just five hours to produce two entremets, nine chocolate desserts, a sugar sculpture and a chocolate sculpture with qualifying teams going through to the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie in Lyon in January 2015. 

Johnson and Belorgey, who were chosen from seven candidates, have been tasked with producing the chocolate sculpture and sugar sculpture respectively and will work together on the entremets and desserts. 

French-born Belorgey, who has worked as a pastry chef for 14 years, the last five of which have been in the UK, said it was a surprise to have been chosen, but he was pleased to be representing the UK team and hoped to score as highly as the team had two years ago.

"There is going to be a lot of work to do in the next three months, but we will aim to take on the work that has been done before and improve on it," he said. 

Team captain Johnson, winner of the UK Pastry Open​, said preparation work would be starting straight away. 

"We are limited on time, but we will get started on our development work over the next couple of weeks and will be ready to aim high in the competition next year."