Japan world patisserie champion

(ANSA) - Milan, October 26 - A team of pastry cooks from Japan Monday won the world patisserie championship organised by the International Patisserie Federation during Host, an international conference on professional hospitality under way at the Fiera di Milano Milan trade fair, organisers said.
    Japan was the surprise winner that due to artistic creations and original mouth-watering designs upset two countries with long patisserie traditions, namely Italy that placed second and Austria that was third In all 13 national teams from four continents fielded 39 pastry cooks in four specialities: chocolates, ice cream, modern cake and patisserie sculpture.
    The Japanese team composed of Tsuda Keisuke, Kenta Nakano and Hiroyuki Emori turned out three exceptional sculptures representing artistically the symbols of the land of the Rising Sun, such as a whale made of sugar and the stages of flight from birds to the conquest of space, all in chocolate.
    The Italians were Antonino Bondì, Diego Mascia and Paul Occhipinti with an elegant creation based on the evolution of photography, meaning they won the gold medal in the modern cake speciality class even though they placed second overall.
    Mexico won the chocolate category while Poland was awarded the 'best Ice Cream' award.
    Thirteen international experts made up the jury led by the captains of the teams in the competition headed by Christian Beduschi, one of the best Italian patisserie cooks.