Winner of MMAPE 2022
Our chef and director of the Be chef Hans Ovando school is proclaimed Best Pastry Chef in Spain (MMAPE) 2022, in a new edition of this competition held on February 19 and 20, within the framework of the InterSICOP fair, at the fairgrounds IFEMA Madrid.
The highest-ranking pastry championship in its category incorporates this new chef into the select group of the best pastry chefs in Spain.
After months of preparation and training and after several hours of competition, Hans Alexis Ovando, Chilean and head of the Be Chef – Barcelona Pastry School, together with Chef Marcos Diaz, have been proclaimed winners of the most prestigious pastry championship in Spain, MMAPE 2022.
After two days of competition and the preparation of a buffet consisting of a travel cake, chocolate and fruit cake, a fried or baked donut, a cut and a molded bonbon and an artistic piece of chocolate, sugar or mixed, the work of Hans Ovando, with wood as the theme of the contest, has stood out for its creativity in natural shapes and flavors and for the perfection in all the details.
Marcos Díaz, for his part, chose music as the theme for a spectacular presentation work with a delicate combination of flavors in all his pieces. Both have surpassed the 80% barrier in their respective scores, the only requirement to get this title.
The Spanish Confederation of Artisan Pastry Entrepreneurs (CEEAP) has also decided in this edition to award a special prize for each of the championship events:
- Hans Ovando has won the prizes for the best travel cake, the best chocolate cake and the best buffet.
- Marcos Díaz has received the award for Best Artistic Piece.
- Toni Rodríguez has been awarded the prize for the best chocolates
- Angelica Locantore has collected the prize for the best traditional specialty, which in this case was the donut.
We leave you with a short interview from our chef Hans Ovando Best pastry chef in Spain 2022.
Hans Ovando, what does it mean for you to have become an MMAPE?
In short, a dream come true. Since my arrival from Chile to Spain in 2002, my purpose has always been to go far in what I do. Now we have to start doing things right, we represent the excellence of pastry in Spain and we carry the banner around the world. You have to be up to the situation.
Hans Ovando, why did you apply to this mmape 2022 contest?
It happens to me like Michael Jordan in The Last Dance, from Netflix, we take it with that philosophy. After MMAPE many things were going to change whatever the result was, in my head it was marked as one of my last pastry competitions. I am 41 years old, and it was something I wanted to do for a long time. I had reached maturity as a pastry chef, work due to the covid had dropped, we had the workshop at school and we had good people around us. We had all the ingredients to make a good cake and we got it.
In summary, many hours, very nervous and tired, and although many told me you are going to win, I was never clear. I only knew that it was my last dance and that I was going to give it my all.
How was your preparation?
Am I lying or am I telling the truth?… Everything has happened. We first began to mature the idea, a year ago. First the music and then the wood. I speak in the plural, because half of the MMAPE belongs to Elena Adell, and the rest is divided among several of us who have been helping, even though I have kept the jacket.
In September I started downloading ideas for the piece and Martin Chiffers finished putting the elements together. In November I began to get up the first pieces, and in December we had already assembled three. Yes, it is true that since November we have been working 12 hours straight every day. And in parallel, tests and more tests to square and balance both flavors and textures. Michel Willaume helped us and gave us his opinion on various flavors, which allowed us to evolve a little more. And Jose Romero also gave us his opinion.
In December we began to suffer for the budget. I had to call Toni Rodríguez to let me have a few kilos for the cake tests, which had to be made by the championship sponsor. January was brutal! We couldn’t find the donut. One day I went to sleep thinking about the donut until a “Eureka” came between dreams. I got up, went to the workshop early and when Elena arrived, she tried it and told me, very good!!!
In summary, many hours, very nervous and tired, and although many told me you are going to win, I was never clear. I only knew that it was my last dance and that I was going to give it my all. The day before we left for Madrid the blast chiller broke, the next night I only slept three hours finishing the recipes.
Who do you want to thank for this new pastry title?
Elena’s parents and her uncle making the table, her brother-in-law going to get a fridge and a pastry cart, those from the florist helping us with the branches and flowers for the buffet, those from Food Lab, Carlos, and Albert, making molds and last-minute dies. Laura bringing us food and doing the shopping, Martin Chiffers painting the table and the chocolate stands, Ignasi Weisel, Joan Coca, Lana, Cristian and Mrs. Angelica and Piru taking pictures around.
We were a lot of people, each one doing one thing, but each one knew what they had to do. The only thing I told them and asked them: ¨I trust you, I know you are going to do well¨ and everything went well.
“I can only thank heaven for having given me the best team and some who came to help us in the last few days. We became 14 people involved in the preparation of MMAPE”.
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