These chefs create masterpieces that delight not only in taste. It is impossible to take your eyes off them.
The way of the pastry chef is not as sweet as it might seem. To become one of the best, dessert masters have to improve every day, come up with new recipes so as not to be outdone by competitors. Well, we will tell you about the real monsters of their craft and show what creations made them famous.
Renowned pastry chef from the USA, owner and chef of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore and Los Angeles. Notable works by Charm City Cakes include steaming volcano desserts, an anatomically correct ear, a German shepherd dog, a CT scanner, a Jeep car, and Wrigley Field baseball stadium. Duff and his team created cakes for the holiday in honor of the second inauguration of Barack Obama, the Katy Perry music video Birthday, and also got into the Guinness Book of Records for baking the world’s largest cupcake in March 2008.
Duff began working in public catering as a teenager: at 14 he got a job in a bagel shop in a shopping center. When Goldman was in his sophomore year at university, he had a chance to visit Charleston, the best restaurant in Baltimore, and he wanted to become one of his chefs by all means. Chef Cindy Wolfe looked at the young man’s resume, noted that he lacked suitable experience, but still hired him – although at first Duff was trusted to cook exclusively cornbread and biscuits.
At one time, one of the most respected pastry chefs in France, Christophe Mishalac, nicknamed Jerome De Oliveira his “spiritual son”, as well as “the little genius of confectionery art.” And it’s hard to argue with this: in 2009, at the age of 23, the talented Frenchman managed to bypass his older, experienced and famous colleagues and become the owner of the champion cup at the main international baking competition Coupe du monde de la pâtisserie.
Jerome became interested in cooking when he was four years old, and even then he understood what kind of life he wanted to choose. He now has three Intuitions branded pastry shops, two in Cannes and another in Grasse.
The signature style of Jerome De Oliveira is a combination of original design and laconic flavor combinations. The master says he doesn’t make desserts that have more than two flavors. Among his most popular masterpieces are the Taten (French apple pie inside out) and Tiramisu tarts, chocolate cake with jeanuja paste made from cocoa beans, hazelnuts and sugar, Exalt cakes with chocolate, vanilla, mascarpone and pecans, Osmosis “with almond paste, orange blossom, apricot marmalade and mousse, as well as the author’s variation of the classic French dessert” Saint Honoré “with profiteroles, caramel, butter and custard cream.
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Cooking is an art without borders. This was proved by the Japanese Sadahara Aoki, who in 2013 was recognized as one of the 12 best chocolatiers at the international exhibition Salon du Chocolat in France.
Sadaharu began to comprehend the art of confectionery at the Machida Cooking School in Tokyo. In 1991, he arrived in France to hone his craft, and the local culinary traditions inspired him so much that he decided to stay here forever. Now guests are treated to his sweets at the shows of famous fashion houses – Chanel, Christian Dior, Kenzo, Yohji Yamamoto, Ungaro. Aoki also owns the Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki chain of confectionery boutiques in Paris and Tokyo.
Sadaharu Aoki captivated the audience with a fresh mix of French and Japanese culinary traditions and daring experiments with salty and sweet: red beans, hot peppers, Japanese yuzu lemon, black sesame seeds and Japanese plum are included in many of the confectioner’s signature sweets. But perhaps his favorite ingredient is green tea. It is part of one of the master’s most famous desserts – the Opera cake with green tea.
One of the most prominent pastry chefs in Australia calls himself nothing less than a “sweet killer”, “the dark lord of confectionery cuisine” and “Lord Voldetort”, and his creations are really capable of striking out almost any connoisseur. Taste, complexity of execution, design, and even the price … Everything is on top.
Adriano Zumbo’s most famous masterpiece is also Australia’s most expensive dessert, and the V8 Angel Cake process includes eight different uses for vanilla! In addition, among the specialty desserts of the culinary specialist are passionfruit tart and Carmel cake, which includes caramel biscuit, ginger shortbread dough, passionfruit cream, caramel cream and ginger-vanilla mousse.
Adriano was born into a family of Italian immigrants. His parents owned a small supermarket – it was there that he discovered his love for sweets and business flair. After graduating from school, Adriano already knew what he wanted to do, and therefore began to comprehend the art of confectionery under the guidance of recognized icons of Australian and French cuisine. He began his career as an independent pastry chef selling homemade tarts, muffins, brownies and banana bread in Sydney cafes, and is now famous all over the world.
He owns a chain of bakeries covering New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York and Las Vegas, the Lackawanna Factory in Jersey City, which supplies baked goods all over America, and a company that organizes various events, Buddy V’s Events, in addition, through participation in the TLC project “The King of Confectioners”, he gained fame and popularity among viewers around the world.
Like many famous culinary experts, Buddy felt an interest in creating desserts as a child: from the age of six he helped his parents in their family bakery Carlo’s Bakery. Five years later, he prepared his first cake as a gift to his mother for her 40th birthday: the young culinary specialist used chocolate, vanilla and Italian rum as a filling. Buddy learned pastry skills under the guidance of his father, Bartolo Valastro, and when he died, Valastro Jr. took over the family business. At that time, he was only 17, but this did not stop him from developing, expanding his business and glorifying his name to the whole world.
Buddy Valastro is known primarily for creating cakes of the most extraordinary sizes and shapes – among them desserts in the form of a railway station, a stadium with fans, heroes of “Transformers”, a zombie club, his own wife and even St. Basil’s Cathedral.
Since Duff Goldman and Buddy Valastro both bake rather unusual cakes, and even live in the same country, it’s no wonder they have become rivals. To find out who is worthy of the title of the true king of cakes, pastry chefs and their apprentices will come together in an epic culinary battle. The complexity of the tasks they have to cope with, to match their worldwide fame – chefs will have to create a car cake in honor of the host of the show Discovery Channel “Fast and Loud” Richard Rawlings, the perfect cake for newlyweds and many other unusual desserts. To find out who will win the battle in this unpredictable competition, check out Confectioners Fight: Buddy vs. Duff, which airs on Sundays at 12:00 on TLC.