What It Takes To Compete

Team Mission

• To foster goodwill and promote education in the field of artisan baking throughout the world.
• To demonstrate to the world that American professionals have evolved to a high degree of baking ability and have established a tradition based on ethnic diversification while remaining uniquely “American.
• To instill pride and to provide leadership and education to artisan bakers and bread lovers all over America.

Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie Competition

Each Team will be judged based on the presentation of the following three categories:

CATEGORIES

• Baguette, Specialty and Ethnic Breads
  This category requires a strong knowledge of artisan bread baking with skills in molding techniques, artistic shaping and scoring of breads. Competitors express principles of quality, esthetics, and professional methods through their breads. The baguette demonstrates a contestant’s fundamental skills in a bread variety that is universally accepted. The French baguette must weigh exactly 250 grams. Contestants make 25 traditionally shaped baguettes as well as 25 non-traditionally shaped baguettes. Judges look for a crispy light brown crust, a variety in the size of holes in the crumb, and a taste relevant to the pre-ferments used. Specialty breads and ethnic breads are made with different flours following traditional methods, giving contestants an opportunity to express creativity and demonstrate specialties from their country. Contestants must make three different types of specialty breads and one specialty ethnic bread. They have one hour the night before the competition to mix pre-ferments. During the eight-hour competition each contestant will make approximately 50 baguettes, 30 specialty breads and one large ethnic bread, plus smaller pieces for tasting. Past winning specialty breads include beer bread, corn bread, ciabatta, naan, and rustic spelt bread.
   
• Viennoiserie:
  The sweet-yeasted Viennese-style pastry in this category is an international product that allows competitors to demonstrate principles of quality, esthetics and professional methods through a great diversity of products. Viennoiserie must be yeast-risen and produced from raised dough fermented) and raised puffed dough. These pastries involve laminated dough (such as croissant and danish) and sweet or enriched baked goods (such as brioche). Competitors must use both yeast-risen and laminated yeast-risen doughs to make five different examples of Viennoiserie. Contestants must produce 18 pastries from each type of sweet dough – three pieces weighing 300 grams and 15 pieces weighing 60 to 100 grams and matching the larger pastry – for a total of 90 pastries. The judges look at laminating techniques, volume, fermentation, appearance, taste and adherence to rules.
   
• Artistic Design: This decorative category involves creating a visually attractive showpiece made entirely of edible ingredients representing the theme: “Your country’s emblem through bread.” This art form—as practiced in European competitions—is sophisticated and challenging with thematic integrity an essential part of the entry. Competitors must create a sculpture that fits within one cubic meter. The theme often relates to regional specialties, artistic styles or history of the country the team represents. Past contestants have used coffee extract as ink to apply traditional fine art and decorative techniques of wood graining and silk screening to their pieces. A sugar mixture glues the pieces together.
   
• Savory Selection: This new category requires all three team members to work closely together to create a catering piece that combines their knowledge. They must produce 160 savory salted rolls, pastries and club sandwiches, plus a rectangular sandwich bread to be tasted and graded by the judges. The 160 savory selections must be designed as part of the artistic piece and fit into the theme: “Your country’s emblem through bread.”

THE COMPETITION PROCESS

Competition Prepration

• All candidates will be given one hour the night before the competition to do absolutely anything to prepare for the next day.
• There is no limitation or restriction on what can be done.
• Examples of what can be done include scaling ingredients, mixing dough, preparing preferments, and making syrup.
• At the end of the one hour, the work will be presented to the jury.

Competition Day

• Teams will have 8 hours to complete and present all work on the day of the competition.
• The work day will start approximately 12 hours after the previous night’s work is complete.

Ingredients

• A list of basic ingredients provided by the competition site will be given to each candidate.
• Candidates will be restricted to use these ingredients. Substitutions will not be allowed. For example, all candidates must use the bread flour provided and may not substitute with one they bring with them.
• Additional ingredients to be used must be approved by the jury during the one hour preparation period the night before the competition day.

The Judging Process

• Weight, volume and adherence to the rules
• Taste, when applicable
• Appearance of finished product
• Inventiveness and originality
• Work environment
• Personality

Becoming a Member of Team USA

Tryouts for the next Bread Bakers Guild Team USA 2020 have not yet been scheduled but probably will be held in 2018.  

In the meantime, join The Guild and take advantage of our classes and networking!

READ MORE ABOUT TEAM USA

• Team USA
• Team USA Awards
• Team USA - Current
• Team USA - Past