Trainee of the Year competition 2011
And the winners are...
What a GREAT competition! And what a great crowd!
This year, the Weston Milling Trainee of the year competition 2011 was held on 20th August at Heavens Bakery in Napier, in conjunction with the Baking Industry Association of New Zealand’s annual conference. The competition previously has been held at hotels/conference centres, and this year was held in Jason Heavens own production facilities which brought about the ‘real’ baking experience to the competition. The attendance from not only the trainees and their support crews but the industry personnel was absolutely tremendous. After the tragedy in Christchurch, the venue for the competition and the conference needed to change and the Weston Milling team and the Baking Industry surely did a great job in its quick and vast transition to its new venue. Dion Ram, last years trainee competition winner was the guest judge, and the judges from the initial judging held earlier in the year, joined Dion in Napier to find the best trainee. Roy West from Southern Hospitality, Clinton Squibb from Barkers and Graham Heaven from Crop and Food Research are well know and well respected in the industry, most capable of finding the winner for the competition.
The top 10 trainees were given about 6 weeks to practise their baking in their own familiar surroundings, before meeting in Napier for the final bake off. The trainees this year were all well prepared, and the standard of baking was definitely the best the competition has seen over the past four years, since its initial beginnings. The competition, designed to lift awareness and involvement of trainees in the industry in order to pursue their careers, has been a triumph of its own. It always gets bigger and better every year, and Weston Milling endeavour to make sure the competition is improved and enhanced where they can to insure they are providing the industry with a competition which all trainees and apprentices aspire to be apart of.
This year, the competition ran in two heats of five competitors. Competitors were to produce four products in 3.5hours; grain bread, sweet flan, pound cake and a savoury tart. The variations, smells, and presentation of the products were all of exceptional quality and uniqueness. The minor details too, such as plates, clothes, condiments and utensils which the trainees used to dress their products and presentation tables, is something which the judges found most pleasing as the standard resembled the high standard of what we are seeing in many reality TV shows in both the baking and chef environments.
The Weston Milling Top 10 trainees were:
Mark Grantham from Manukau Institute of Technology
Phil Burton-French from Kapiti Cakes and Bakery
Daniel Faurel from 10 O’clock Cookie Bakery
Khalid Ali from Manukau Institute of Technology
Joshua Harding from Viands Bakery
Shane Aitken from Skills for Work, New World New Lynn
Nicole Oldridge from Jacksons Bakery
James Robinson from The Windmill Quality Cake Shop
Jason Hay from Richoux Patisserie
And Tong min Li from Hill Park Bakery
The top 10 trainees baked their hearts out, and were crowd pleasers through the day, but at the end of the day, the best baker was announced at the BIANZ awards dinner that evening. It was a very intense competition, and the wait for the evening could not have come any sooner for these trainees. Hayden Campbell, Stacey Mearns and Melanie Kerr (Guest MC) announced the winners, and were very proud to do so.
And the Weston Milling Trainee of the Year 2011 goes to…
Jason Hay from Richoux Patisserie of Ellerslie, Auckland!
Jason produced some outstanding product, of exceptional baking qualities. Jason will now be the face of Weston Milling for the year to come, and will deservingly receive his 1st prize, worth up to the value of $9000 and get to learn and experience more of the baking world for himself. We wish Jason the very best in his future endeavours!
2nd prize went to Mark Grantham from Manukau Institute of Technology.
Mark, the oldest contestant and less experienced was an absolute crowd pleaser. His artistic skills proved in his stencil use on all products and his manner was kept calm and collected throughout the competition. It is great to have a mixture of all people from all walks of life enter and compete, and Mark definitely showed all trainees and prospective bakers out there that it is possible!
And 3rd place was won by Joshua Harding of Viands Bakery
Viands Bakery have evolved over the years, and won many awards themselves and Josh is a representation of the businesses success and will definitely contribute to the businesses success in the future. Josh, a young baking apprentice who is a hard worker by day and rocker by night, was humble throughout the competition and was congratulated with open arms from everyone in the competition and his close knit working family. We look forward to seeing more of Josh in the future!
A big thank you to everyone who has been involved in the competition in some way or form and for all future up and coming bakers, keep an eye out for details of next years competition so you can ensure you are apart of the action!