Sugar art beauty

The clock is ticking. Chef Kusno only has 30 minutes left to put together his sugar showpiece and decorate two pink dessert cakes.

Delicately, the chef from Borobudur Hotel in Jakarta placed a thin red ring along with a read flower on a cake but it cracked into two pieces, prompting gasps of horror from the audience at the bake-off competition.

But Kusno remained calm; he placed the two broken pieces on the top of the cake to form a perfect crescent.

It was one of the most thrilling moments during the recent Fonterra Pastry Chef Challenge 2011, which was held by Fonterra Foodservices, a dairy products distributor.

The pastry challenge, held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Central Jakarta, saw 10 selected teams of pastry chefs from five and four star hotels in the country show off their skills and art in making sugar showpieces and desserts.

Fonterra’s national trade marketing manager, Denny Herdian Ardiwinata, said the company had invited 25 hotels in the country to join the competition.

Only five- and four-star hotels were invited, as they were considered to have adequate pastry and bakery facilities. The hotels then submitted recipes and the 10 best were selected for the contest. “The recipes should have a reasonable cost and can be imagined by our team of judges,” he said.

The 10 chefs came from Bandung [West Java], Bali, Jakarta and Medan (North Sumatra). They were Chef Hariesti Warninda from Hard Rock Hotel Bali; Chef Chairul Salim from Intercontinental Mid Plaza Hotel; Chef I Made Wana Ambara from Four Seasons Hotel Jakarta and Chef Mulyadi Sain from Sultan Hotel Jakarta.

Others included Chef Hendry Hutabarat from Grand Swiss Hotel Medan; Chef Litha Liezwari from Kristal Hotel Jakarta; Chef Lukman Afandi from The Park Lane Jakarta; Chef I Made Sutisna from Ayana Resort and Spa Bali; Chef Kusno from Borobudur Hotel Jakarta and Chef Yana Hendriana from Sheraton Bandung.

Manfred Cohlen, a senior regional advisor chef at Fonterra Brands for Asia and Middle East, said the most points were for taste, presentation, time and cleanliness.

“We look at the sweetness, the acidity, ease of cutting, ease of serving, elegant looks, precision … a harmony of those things. When you see such work, you’ll think ‘wow, that’s professional’,” said Cohlen, one of the three judges.

Sugar art has been around for centuries, with food science guru Harold McGee writing in his book On Food and Cooking that the art of confectionary dates back to ancient Egypt, and reached an elaborative stage during the medieval reign of European monarchs.

I Made Sutisna of Ayana Resort and Spa Bali snatched the top prize in best overall performance category with his creation, “Literati”, saying that the name described a poet who tried to express his or her work in many ways.

Chef Kusno from Borobudur Hotel in Jakarta won the best dessert category while Chef Lukman Afandi from The Park Line in Jakarta won the best artistic creation category.

The three winners brought home cash prizes ranging from Rp 4 million (US$444) to Rp 7 million and a chance to represent Indonesia in the international pastry chef competition in Food and Hotel Asia Singapore in 2012.

Sutisna, who started learning the sugar art technique in Indonesia in 1994, was excited, especially for getting the chance to compete in the international scene.

“We need to go traveling to get more experience. Singapore (for example) has a more classy competition that features teams from other countries,” he said.