Pastry Live is proud to announce Team Maura Metheny and Dan Forgey of Norman Love Confections as this year’s National Showpiece Champions. Along with earning the title and a cash prize of $5,000, the team was also awarded Best Chocolate Showpiece for their innovative design portraying this year’s theme of “The Art of Illusion.”
Seven teams of two chefs competed on August 27th over the course of seven hours, constructing showpieces utilizing a unique trio of pedestal bases, encouraging an entirely new range of showpiece design. Team Metheny’s chocolate showpiece, titled “The Hurwitz Hypnotist,” was favored for its overall visual aesthetic and the originality of its design. Drawing their inspiration from the sculptures of Jonty Hurwitz and renowned illusionists Harry Houdini and David Copperfield, the duo set out to captivate viewers, engaging them through the illusion created by their design. Staying true to their muses, they transformed chocolate into a show based on perspective, with various aspects appearing, separating and coming together based on the angle it was viewed from.
However, it was a very close competition, as Team Bill Foltz and Arlety Estevez of L’Auberge Casinos and Hotels were awarded Best Sugar Showpiece and Best Artistry by the judging panel. Conveying their interpretation of the theme through optical deception, Team Foltz’s design was also selected by their peers for the Competitor’s Choice Award. Their sugar masterpiece titled “Deceptive to the Eye,” highlighted delicately balanced pulled and cast sugar, surrounding their vision of a masterful magician levitating his props in defiance of gravity.
Chosen by the audience for the People’s Choice Award was Team Jim Mullaney and Alex Hwang for their sugar showpiece titled “The Art and Imagination of Music in Ballet.” Their piece featured a precariously balanced pulled sugar ballerina with each component of their design building on the illusion surrounding the dancer. Our newest award, Sponsor’s Choice, went to Team Julian Perrigo-Jimenez and Andrea Alfaro for their celestial inspired chocolate piece, “The Universe at Second Glance.” Their work centered on how individual aspects can come together to create a pattern, evident in the elegant lady framed by the various parts of their design.
The National Showpiece Championship calls for competitors to push the boundaries of normal showpiece construction, but without requiring huge financial and personal sacrifices from competitors. Rather than constraining chefs with endless rules and regulations, the National Showpiece Championship is a new form of competition that encourages chefs to compete at the highest level possible. Each team exhibited a high level of creative capability, demonstrating what minimal restrictions produce. Pastry Live wishes to congratulate chefs Maura Metheny and Dan Forgey for winning this year’s National Showpiece Championship. Pastry Live also thanks each competitor for their outstanding work, professionalism and for helping to make this yet another successful year.
For more details about Pastry Live and the National Showpiece Championship, please contact Event Producer Chef Paul Bodrogi at chef@pastrylive.com or 678.881.9490. Further information is also available on our website at www.pastrylive.com.
Source: Pastry Live
