But Dumonceaux, a veteran competitive baker, insists Team Canada can rest on neither its laurels nor its loaves as it prepares for that follow-up and final event in Europe. \u201cThis is the World Cup of baking,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Considered the \u201cOlympics\u201d of the bread and pastry world, the Coupe de Monde is the world\u2019s most prestigious baking event. Competition this January in Paris will be fierce, and Team Canada will need to rise to new heights to succeed.<\/p>\n
The greatest of competitive bake-offs<\/p>\n
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Professional baking competition is a team sport. A Coupe de Monde team has three members, each responsible for one event: bread, Viennoiserie (aka pastry), and the \u201cshowpiece,\u201d which is an ornamental sculpture of bread products.<\/p>\n
The requirements are prodigious. In Vegas, the bread category required 50 baguettes in two different shapes, an aromatic bread, a nutritional bread, and a sourdough bread, each in two shapes in 10 hours.<\/p>\n
Team Canada used 135 different ingredients in Vegas, and will probably use more in Paris.<\/p>\n
Each competition takes two days, with two hours of prep time on the first day and eight hours of baking on the second. Teams are judged on the appearance and taste of what they bake as well as cleanliness and sanitation.<\/p>\n
It is a gruelling process.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to work super fast and have great time management, organizational skills, sanitation skills,\u201d says Dumonceaux.<\/p>\n
In the months leading up to a competition, Dumonceaux helps team members develop their ideas, refine their techniques and build their formulas \u2013 not, Dumonceaux is adamant, recipes. \u201cWe need to be precise,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
During the competition, the coach\u2019s role is all about helping the team stay organized.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen you are in the competition, your mind could be everywhere,\u201d says Jason Wang. \u201cYou could be overlooking something totally obvious. You might not hear a timer, you turn around and your things are burned. Alan will say, \u2018Your timer is going.\u2019 He gives us confidence and makes us comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wang, Team Canada\u2019s showpiece ace, is no stranger to the pressures of culinary competition. Now the executive pastry chef at the Shaw Conference Centre, he began competitive cooking soon after he started as a student at NAIT. He made showpieces from chocolate and sugar for the World Culinary Olympics in 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019d never made a showpiece with bread before Dumonceaux approached him earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier this year when I went back to NAIT to say \u2018Hi,\u2019 Alan said, \u2018I\u2019m looking for someone to make a bread showpiece.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I was interested!\u201d says Wang. He sees the Coupe de Monde as his biggest competition yet. Grateful for the role, he even relishes the idea of all eyes being on his work, which will be live streamed. \u201cIt\u2019s a showstopper!\u201d he says of the sculpture category.<\/p>\n
\u201cJason is very organized,\u201d says Dumonceaux. \u201cHe\u2019s very calm under pressure. In competition, something doesn\u2019t always go your way. How you handle difficulty is what matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preparing for the big stage in Paris<\/p>\n
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Dumonceaux and Wang know Team Canada needs to improve for the big show in Paris, which will involve making additional improvised breads as well as five different sandwiches to display with the showpiece.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe finished slightly early in Las Vegas,\u201d says Dumonceaux. \u201cEveryone will need to be an hour faster in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each member of Team Canada right now is working with Dumonceaux to finalize their ideas and formulas for Paris. They\u2019ll soon begin group practices to work on coordination and cooperation. Each practice takes two days plus travel time. (The other two members, Florent Lehmann and Julien Bruyer, work in Montreal and Toronto, respectively.)<\/p>\n