Our trip to France
We left Macau on October 8th with Ha Veng, Luc and myself in a boat
direction Hong-Kong, with 7 kg. Of fragile chocolate items hand carry each,
and a luggage of 20 kg. Each, it was a pleasant 1 hour ride to Hong-Kong.
Then we took the 13 hours plane to Paris without problem. At our arrival in
Paris, we checked the boxes and nothing was broken, then we took the taxi
and went directly to the Ecole de la Boulangerie in Bercy where we started
to work right away. Over there, we met the Russian, English, Japan, Austria,
Thailand and Mexico teams. Teoh joined us. We work there for four days
before our transfer to Salon du Chocolat Porte de Versailles, in a boot of
China where Ha Veng worked for two days, 14 and 15
1st day of competition
On 14th it was a busy day for Ha Veng because he had to finish and present
his show piece in three hours. Next to his boot, was the French competitor
and it's true that it was a lot of drama on this day as some of the French
show pieces collapsed after more than two hours' work, but with strong
determination and hard work, he managed to present his show piece in time,
but of course, it was not totally finished. As we were just opposite to Ha
Veng's boot, to watch and support him, I don't know which one was more
stressed Ha Veng or Luc, Theo or me, the contestant doing his show piece
with the 19 Judges checking, not to mention the three TV asking questions at
the same time or us worrying for him, but being unable to do anything
Ha Veng managed to finish 99 % of his show piece but all the judges agreed
that he was the contestant with the best new techniques on that day, and
said all his work was very clean
Since we were the first group to start on 14th, after Ha Veng finished his
show piece, we had 45 minutes to clear the boot, in order to give the place
clean to the next contestant.
2nd day of competition
On 15th, it was the hard day for Ha Veng as he needed to produce 40
chocolate praline, molded chocolate, seven deserts plated, two cakes and a
hat chocolate show piece. Eleven hours working straight, with no time for
lunch or even toilets, and I must say Ha Veng did very well, his praline was
outstanding as well as the plated deserts which were superb. The cakes were
very nice. The hat was OK, but it may explain the final score. So overall,
it was a great experience for all of us and we did learn a lot in a process
to become stronger, and hope to come back in two years to take the first
place for China. This year, the first one was Japan; the second place was
U.S.A. and the third place Germany. Well done for all the contestants for
their dedication and hard work during this competition to give us a great
show.
Thank you to my sponsor DKSH who gave me the opportunity to coach and assist
the China team in the best conditions.
Many thanks to Sharon, Fobbie and Luc for all the logistic, and all my
friends working on this project, Christophe, Kawakami, Luc and Teoh.
I hope you will enjoy all the videos and photos on my website.
See you.
