I am the 2020 Western regional winner!
I am the 2020 western region winner
I am the 2020 Western regional winner in the Australian Baking Industry National Scholarship Awards (ABINSA). We were meant to have our award night in November 2020 in Melbourne but it had to be postponed due to the covid lockdown.
At the end of May 2021, I got to enjoy hanging out with some other like-minded baking industry people for almost a week. It was the most enjoyable time I have had in a while. (& it was the first time of travelling since covid appeared)
We visited many bakeries around the Sydney area and a few factories.
Day 1
We were told we would hit the ground running, and that is what happened! My plane was the last one that arrived in Sydney. Some of the other regional winners had arrived a lot earlier so they went and visited a nearby bakery for breakfast before coming back to pick me up.
We were dropped off at the hotel and our instructions were to catch a ferry to Watson’s bay and gave us some ferry tickets. The NSW regional winner, Jack was going to show us how to get there. Our plan was to meet up in the foyer at 2 pm to start our walk to darling harbor to catch our ferry.
The new casino Sydney Harbor Bridge Opera house Luna Park
Exploring Sydney Harbor on the ferry
Once on the ferry, we enjoyed the views of the harbour before meeting up with the organisers for a drink at the cafe near the wharf. We all chatted amongst each other learning about what we did back home. Cherrie was our driver for the time while we were in Sydney. When it was time to get back in the car we drove to a lookout and watched the sunset over Sydney (that was timed so well!)
At Watson’s bay The Lookout
After looking at the sunset we were off to Bondi beach to take in the site there and then onto Craig and Denise’s house for an exclusive dinner. It was such a lovely night sitting outside by the heater chatting and making jokes while eating a lovely dinner prepared by the Perry family, we all felt very privileged for them to have us all to the house.
Cherrie drove us back to the hotel, while driving back we encountered a spider in the car! which was quite the amusement for the drive home and Madison and Jae were very keen to get out of the car! (No spiders were harmed, the spider was rescued and it had a new home outside of the car)
DAY 2: Brasserie bakery, Pepe Saya Butter factory tour, upper-crust bakery, Mrs Jones, Rollers and the dinner at the Apprentice.
We started off at having breakfast at the Brasserie Bread bakery cafe before our tour at the Pepe Saya butter factory.
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Pepe saya factory
Pepe Saya
Once we arrived at the Pepe Saya factory, we were taken inside and put on our hairnets and coats and the covid check-in, put our masks on and the hygienic handwash we were all set for our tour through the artisan butter factory. Our tour guide was the owner himself, Pepe. He explained the process of how he made his butter and what he butter products he makes for the baking industry. Pepe told us that most of his butter is used by bakers and mostly used in making danishes and croissants. He also does the little butter’s for restaurants for diners to enjoy with their bread roll. When covid hit he came up with some home-delivered type products for the home baker, the popular item was his maple butter jars.
Pepe saya factory 1000L of cream The churner Getting butter ready for the bakeries Butter knobs Maple syrup Maple butter jars
After seeing the butter factory Pepe showed us the crumpet business idea to used the “leftover cream”. After listening to the crumpet business leader talk about their new adventure and their goal we all got a crumpet to try and of course we had to have some of the butter on top!
Next on our itinerary was to visit a bakery that just won a few awards for the Best pie and the best pastie this year’s Aussie pie and pastie competition. I choose the beef masaman pie and it was quite tasty!
Next was an adventure climbing up some cliffs to get to the Mrs Jones Bakery in freshwater. We definitely worked off our breakfast and lunch to get there!
Mrs Jones The Baker
We all sat down at a table and some enjoyed a cake and a cup of tea, while some others enjoyed a cool drink and some danishes. I was still so full, so I brought a brownie and a fruit slice to take back to the hotel to try later in the week.
After our rest, we walked back up and over the cliffs of Freshwater and then along the Manley beach to visit another bakery called Rollers.
Rollers
We did arrive about 2 pm -3 pm in the afternoon and if you want to have a pick from their great selection it is always best to arrive in the morning. The kitchen area is so tiny compared to my bakery. I guess they do need a very cool area to make the croissants and danishes, so it makes sense to have one room where it is temperature-controlled, so the butter doesn’t melt.
Need to get the early! Look at the layers More layers The tiny cool working space The other tiny work space.
After the Rollers bakery we all caught the ferry from Manley back to Circular Quay and we walked back to our hotel.
The Apprentice restaurant
That night we (the regional winners) were booked at The Apprentice restaurant at the TAFE for dinner. Which is a place where Chef students practice their cooking skills and the bar and waiting students practice their customer service and pouring drink skills.
Day 3 Allied Pinnacle and Awards night
We were off to the Allied Pinnacle factory. We spent the day learning about product development in the Allied Pinnacle test lab.
Where we got creative and made up flavours for muffins, and filled donuts and pizzas. We then went through the tasting and scoring process of the products we created to see which one would score higher, using their testing procedure. It was quite interesting.
The Australian Baking Industry National Scholarship Awards Night
The regional winners were picked up from the hotel by a limo and we were taken around Sydney to a little scenic route before we were driven to the Awards ceremony.
18-24years category
Once we were inside we were all waiting nervously to see who’s name would be readout. Jack and Madison were the only two regional winners for the 18-24 year category. They were both called up to receive their regional winner’s medal and then the winner was announced ….Jack was the 2020 Sydney Packham Medal winner. Jack did an amazing speech! The over 25’s were so impressed at his speech we were all nervous to go up after him as we all agreed we could not do a better speech than what he had done!
Over 25’s category
The over 25’s were all called up Kerry(myself), Raymond and Jae.
Each time one of us was called up Lindsey interview each of us and somehow he knew some details about the recent days we had already spent with each other. He talked about the spider in the car, the puddle that made the car swerve, the cliffs we climbed to get to the bakery, and then stated that it could have all been avoided because there were car parks.
He had also mentioned the story I told in the car about my daughter talking to Seri (iPad) while I was on hold to the accounting software firm. “My daughter was asking all the questions under the sun and then decided she had enough and ask Seri to turn herself off cause she wanted to go and play now. Seri kept coming back with statements like “I don’t know what you mean” “I can’t do that right now” “look what I found on the web for you” and my daughter was getting frustrated that Seri could turn herself off and kept asking her the same questions for a good 20mins before she just gave up.
After everyone was interviewed the three of us all stood up there waiting to hear the name of the winner. The winner for the 2020 Arthur Dension is Jae!
A big congratulations to both Jack and Jae on their wins! They have both won a choice of either going to Singapore or Las Vegas to visit bakery Industry shows. We already know that they had both decided before that they would choose the Las Vegas option as we all had a discussion about it in the car the day before.
We all were very happy that we could enjoy our night and relax once the formal part of the nigh was completed!
Day 4: Textbook, Flour and stone bakery, Bakery expo and the Sticky lolly shop and the Bakeskills awards night.
We started our day off at Textbook bakery for breakfast. It is meant to be another popular bakery where you need to be one of the first ones there on the weekend. But we were there mid-week and we were there in the morning so there weren’t any crazy lineups happening!
Flour and Stone Bakery
After the Breakfast at Textbook, we spent the rest of the morning with the Flour and Stone owner. We were shown around her bakery and she told us how her systems worked. She told us her background story as well as asking about each of our background stories and She talked about how she treats her staff. And who she makes time for each of her staff and asks them 3 questions each 90days about how they are going in her business and what their goals are and if they have achieved their goals for the 90days. It was wonderful that she spent her valuable time that morning with us sharing her knowledge and her wisdom.
Flour and stone Owner Flour and stone shop entrance Flour and stone cake cabinet Flour and stone cake cabinet Making one of their famous cakes next step of the cake the pastry room A diagram which the owners friend had drawn for her Some of the artful displays in the cafe Some of the artful displays in the cafe Some of the artful displays in the cafe Some of the artful displays in the cafe Lemon curd sponge cake
The bakery expo
After visiting Flour and stone, we went to the bakery expo help at Wentwork Park. We watched a view presentations and walked around at some of the displays even had a go at the “writing the business name with Nutella” competition.
Using a miller making sough Flour dusting sour dough with a stencil Jack having a go
Walking through The Rocks area
We all decided we also wanted to visit the Sticky lolly shop where they make the hard sugar lollies before your eyes. So we set off to the Rocks marketplace to find the lolly store.
Walking through the Rocks area Walking through the Rocks area Walking through the Rocks area The Village was told that this street is has been used a lot for movie scenes
The Sticky’s Lolly shop
Once we found the shop we got to watch a making of one of the lollies. My daughter loves anything related to space so the lolly end here in the photo is an end of the lolly roll which shows how they built the lolly from the inside out to make a little alien inside of the lolly. There was a space-themed packet of lollies which I had to buy for her, that included a Comet, Rocket, Astronaut, Saturn alien like in the photo and some plain pillow lollies like what they are making in the photo.
After visiting the lolly shop we went back to the hotel to attend another awards night for the apprentices from the TAFE’s around Australia.
It had also been the night for the Lunar eclipse so we all ventured out to take a peek at the Luna eclipse too.
I had an amazing time in Sydney with a group of like minded bakers/pastrycooks.
Thank you to the sponsors and ASB.
And a massive thank you to Craig and Denise Perry for your hospitality and for such a beautiful evening.
Janet (the contact for ASB for us ) for organising the events. And the lovely Cherrie Wilson for driving us all around Sydney, amongst all the little challenges we came across (puddles, spiders and gutters. )
It was great meeting the other 2020 regional winners who we all patiently waited to see who will be called the national winners and it was one of the most enjoyable times!
I was secretly happy that I get another chance to do this again as it is such an awesome opportunity to win such an amazing scholarship prize.
Congratulations Jae Thomas and Jack Mylott for being the national winners for 2020.
