Who will be the Best Restaurant Newcomer Pastry Chef at Madrid Fusión?
The best revelation pastry chef in our country is in La Rioja: Pol Contreras, creative head of the Echaurren R&D workshop, has been chosen with an acorn-fed Iberian pork lard ice cream wrapped in crispy rind with heather honey from Ezcaray, lemons roasted in oak firewood and, just for the contest, with a Belgian Speculoos biscuit.
This dessert, inspired by the offal, can be found both on the menu (€12.50) and on the Entrañas tasting menu (€125) at the Riojan restaurant, run by Francis Paniego and which has two Michelin stars.
According to the jury, this dessert, characterized by its crunchiness, its acidity and its smoky nuances, "incites you to continue eating", "is very fresh" and "is the perfect ending to any menu". And, in the words of the Catalan chef and pastry chef (Barcelona, 1982): “ es muy Echaurren" because it reflects the atmosphere and smells of this century-old family hotel which has evolved to become, also, a gastronomic temple.
Pastry chef Pol Contreras, responsible for Taller del Echaurren, has won the award for Best New Pastry Chef in a Restaurant.
Pol Contreras (Barcelona, 1986) receives this award after a 17-year professional career, since he began at 15 at the Hotel Pesset (Sort, Lleida) and trained at Espai Sucré, with a one-year stage that marked his style , as he admits, in Fauçon (Paris), where he was an R&D assistant with French pastry chef Cedric Grolet and in charge of the night team. For him, this recognition shows that "the world of gastronomy is cooked over a slow fire".
Iberian pork lard ice cream with pork rinds on a lemon juice and honey, dessert with which he has obtained the prize.
THE BEST PASTRY WORKER
In the category of Revelation Pastry Chef, the winner was Ana Lucía Jarquín (La Pastisseria, Barcelona), with a tribute to her land, Guatemala: a volcano with very recognizable flavors –rum and cocoa– of the “land of eternal spring”. In its case, the jury has valued the "spectacular presentation", the taste, the raw material and the technique in the preparation of this dessert, winner of this contest organized within the framework of Reale Seguros Madrid Fusión 2019 and convened by Síbari Food Service .
Ana Jarquín, from La Pastisseria de Barcelona, winner in the Obrador Pastry Chef category.
In the bakery revelation pastry chefs, the second classified was Pablo Morales (Habaziro Concept, La Coruña) with Orígenes, who simulates the orbit of the moon around the earth with a dairy cream, chocolate financier and toffee center with mango, passion fruit and Spéculoos, and the third prize went to Puri Morillo from the Daza pastry shop (Málaga), with a dessert created in honor of her son: Madagascar, a peanut cookie with dark chocolate sponge cake with vanilla mousse and a floral touch of violet.
Chocolate volcano with rum, creation of Ana Jarquin.
The rest of the finalists in the restaurant pastry chef category have been Lucila Canero from the Línia restaurant (Barcelona), with her dessert Zen Garden –a rock of vanilla from Madagascar with lemon, yuzu and mint inside with a green tea siphon cake in two textures that imitates moss, a broken vanilla meringue and mini matcha tea stones–, and Laura Elena García Miralrío, from BonAmb (Jávea, Alicante), with a "proximity" dessert , made with products from the area: sheep's milk from a native breed -Guirra-, eggplant angel hair, citrus peel, lemon cream with crispy lemon sablé and miso and honey ice cream.
Zen Garden, dessert by the finalist Lucila Canero from the Línia restaurant (Barcelona).