Chocolatiers preparing for Italian Chocolate Championship

Dec. 6, 2012, Rimini, Italy – The best eight Italian chocolate artisans
will compete at SIGEP (Jan. 19-21, 2013) in the 2013 Italian Chocolate
Championship.

Dec. 6, 2012, Rimini, Italy – The best eight Italian chocolate artisans will compete at SIGEP (Jan. 19-21, 2013) in the 2013 Italian Chocolate Championship.
 
The event spotlights extraordinary professionals who, after having passed the regional heats, will compete to win the title of Italian chocolatier of the year. The winner will also compete in the fifth edition of the World Chocolate Masters, organized by Callebaut, Cacao Barry and Carma.
 
The Italian Chocolate Championship’s eight finalists are:

• Sandy Astrali from Tombolo (Padua) – pastry chef at Opera patisserie in Castelfranco Veneto (Treviso)
• Massimiliano Baglivo from Galatina (Lecce) – owner of Dolci e Dintorni patisserie in Galatina
• Davide Comaschi from Milan – head pastry chef  at Milan’s Martesana patisserie
• Gianluca Cuna from Galatina (Lecce) – pastry chef at Lecce’s Dolci Fantasie
• Ferdinando Esposito from Sarno (Salerno) – owner of Sarno’s Mario e Maria patisserie
• Emiddio Isernia from Palma Campania (Naples) – pastry chef at the Marigliano patisserie in San Gennarello di Ottaviano (Naples)
• Ernst Knam from Milan – owner of Milan’s L’Antica Arte del Dolce patisserie
• Fabio Ravone from Brindisi – Owner of Brindisi’s Dolci Creazioni patisserie, due to open soon.

This year's competition theme is the architecture of flavour. The competition's tests include the preparation of a large work in chocolate, a chocolate-flavoured layer cake, a moulded praline and a chocolate-flavoured pudding. In the last test, each participant will have to give his own personal slant on a traditional Italian pastry recipe featuring chocolate which will be proposed (the same for all contestants) by the committee of experts. The chocolatiers will have to show their architectural skills applied to flavour, analyzing and harmonizing aromas, studying and designing new shapes and consistencies.