Magazine: Master course by French confectioners

The Guild of Hungarian Confectioners has been participating in EU mobility programmes for a long time. Our magazine interviewed Éva Vojtek, the person who coordinates grants programmes and training courses.

Back in 2008 it was Denis Matyasy, a confectioner with Hungarian antecedents, who helped in organising the annual training courses in Hungary. Based on his decades of professional experience, 16 years ago he established a real 21st-century confectionery. He is a member of Relais Desserts. In 2015 he received the Pro Turismo diploma in the building of the Hungarian Parliament, for his efforts in the international mobility programme that makes it possible for Hungarian confectioners to learn the latest trends abroad. This year’s master course was organised for the 12th time.

In 2007 Aurélien Trottier opened the Artis’an Passionné confectionery in Angers, with his friend, chocolate master Luc Poisson. In 2016 they built a 400m² modern production facility in Ponts-de-Cé. He has been teaching at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie (ENSP) since 2009.

Alain Chartier is an M.O.F. and Relais Desserts member, the winner of the ice cream world championship in 2003. In 1997-1998 he worked at the Yssingeaux confectionery innovation centre as demonstration assistant and innovation researcher.

At the 3-day course they taught participants how to make nine different cakes and pastries, paying special attention to new techniques e.g. using freezing that doesn’t result in quality deterioration. We could see that traditional products such as baba au rhum, cake chocolat – noisette, cake moelleux vanille, galettes noisette zeste, tatin, Madeleine go hand in hand with modern sweets like douceur cafe, Mont Blanc and val de loire, which are made using exotic fruits.

We don’t study this aspect but our experience is that the attitudes of confectioners have changed considerably. They are using quality ingredients, they prepare new cakes and pastries and serve French-inspired desserts too. //