Best Sugar Showpiece by Team Hurlbert-Capper
After months of preparation and planning, Team Andy Chlebana and Nancy Carey were awarded the title of not only National Showpiece Champions for having the Best Overall Showpiece, but also the Best Chocolate Showpiece.
Competitors had six hours in which to create their works of art, utilizing a new type of base created by the Chicago School of Mold Making. Each team had to craft a showpiece which displayed a high level of technique, while creatively connecting and utilizing the three bases. As there was no theme, each team was encouraged to push the boundaries of traditional showpiece construction and aim for more artistic and architecturally inspired creations.
Team Chlebana’s chocolate showpiece incorporated the three bases well, while demonstrating to the judges a high degree of technical difficulty. Each piece of their structure was carefully curved and bent, going beyond the typical flat features that can sometimes been seen in chocolate showpieces. Their showpiece design was inspired by unconventional sources, including Ernst Haeckel’s scientific sketches and Frank O. Gekry’s architectural pieces. These influences helped shape their showpiece concept, which utilized the most unlikely of design elements, rocks. The two pastry artists created a unique piece from this design which demonstrated not only their artistic skills, but their mastery of the chocolate medium.
While Team Chlebana’s showpiece was highly scored by the judges, Team Jim Mullaney and David Ramirez’s playful fountain showpiece was chosen by the crowd for the Audience Choice Award. Their creation featured chocolate towers connected by sprays of water cascading from the tops and hand molded chocolate figures running through the fountain. Tying the entire piece’s theme together was a pool of real water at its base.
Earning the Best Sugar Showpiece Award, Team Heather Hurlbert and Natasha Capper’s, design titled the “Abyss”, was derived from the idea of the unexplored ocean deep. Blown sugar jelly fish and bubbles floated gracefully through their piece, giving it a fluid and airy appeal.
As for the Competitor’s Choice Award, Team Tracy DeWitt and David Smoake were chosen by their fellow competitors as having the best showpiece among them. Cleverly named “Smoake on the Water”, their sugar showpiece design came from their adventures during a white water rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. Their showpiece depicted a scene of river waves tossing about a blown sugar raft, which featured the husband and wife team in sugar figurine form enjoying their voyage.
While many pastry competitions call for huge financial and personal sacrifices of competitors, the National Showpiece Championship is designed to overcome these constraints and allow chefs the freedom to be both creative and innovative. The level of talent and ability displayed by all of the teams through their showpieces more than demonstrated what creative freedom can produce. Pastry Live wishes to congratulate Team Chlebana on their hard earned win. We also thank all of the competitors for their amazing work and for helping us in creating this new form of competition.
For more details about Pastry Live and the National Showpiece Championship, please contact Chef Paul Bodrogi at chef@pastrylive.com or 678.881.9490. Further information is also available on our website at www.pastrylive.com.
