Philippe Agnese, executive pastry chef at the Atlantis, The Palm receives his award from Foodcraft's Mat Baker.
Philippe Agnese, executive pastry chef at the Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai scooped the coveted award of Pastry Chef of the Year at last night’s glittering Caterer Middle East Awards event held at Dubai’s Ritz-Carlton DIFC.
Speaking exclusively to Hoteliermiddleeast.com at the event, Agnese was elated at winning the award, presented by Mat Baker, CEO of sponsor Foodcraft, commenting: “It is always nice to win something. First of all because this award really recognises the theme that I am driving. There is a whole team working with me and working hard on last minute requests, on creativity, on ideas that I have, on the crazy ideas which they still have to follow.
“They learn from it, even if they don’t realise it, so they have to follow me in my crazy ideas. But it's really for them and I’m happy to win this for the entire team," he added.
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A close runner up in the category, receiving a Highly Commended at the event was Johannes Bonin, executive pastry chef at the Burj Al Arab, Dubai who also impressed the judges for his, “open mind and perpetual quest for new horizons as a chef.”
Nominated by the Atlantis team for “his true passion for the craft and talent for imaginative projects,” and highlighted as someone who is team player who performs at gigs with his guitar, chef Philippe secured the judges’ winning vote for his wealth of knowledge and experience.
An example of his cutting-edge skills is ‘The Bubbling Station’ which he often uses at VIP events to create a wow factor, where large fish bowls are filled with fruit-flavoured foam and served with crumbled compote shooters.
He also transformed a spare conference room into a pop-up shop filled with sweet treats, created a gingerbread house from 5000 gingerbread bricks for the Christmas season and recreated characters from the animated film Chicken Run by hand including a 4m-high chocolate sculpture of the main character. His attention to detail in his thought processes are demonstrated in the bakery where he uses bread techniques learnt in Japan and adapts recipes to suit local tastes.
Agnese who joined Atlantis in 2011 and currently manages the resort’s pastry and bakery operations with responsibility for a 65-strong team, began his career as an apprentice with Au Bon Gourmet in Paris after graduating from University Chevron in the French capital.
The chef then worked his way up to sous chef at two Michelin-starred Le Pavillon Josephine, France, before establishing himself as a talented and innovative pastry chef utilising his talents in the Far East and the Philippine’s as a food business consultant, before turning his focus to five-star hotels.
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Jun 20, 2013 , United Arab Emirates
It would be great in the future if your articles tell us what the credentials of the judges are. Anyone can have an opinion about food as is evidenced by the proliferation of food writers and bloggers but not just anyone necessarily knows what he or she is talking about. The fact that one is an "...