Last night at the Caterer Awards 2016, Atlantis the Palm walked away with three award wins, including victory in the pastry chef of the year category.
The trophy went to Patrice Cabannes, executive pastry chef at the Dubai-based resort. The award was presented to Cabannes by Riyadh Hassan, sales and marketing manager, pastry division at Aramtec.
Several winning factors made Cabannes’ entry stand out above the other strong contestants in this category, such as his outstanding record for staff retention in his team. The secret to which, he told Caterer Middle East on the night, was simply to "treat them well."
"Treat them the way you would like to be treated," Cabannes said after winning the award. "A lot of chefs believe that they are superior, but this is not right. They are all there to do a job, and because of this job, I am here tonight. It is because of them."
Cabannes is also noteworthy for creativity. His innovative pastry creations include unique guest amenities, such as a floating chocolate box welcome gift for in-house guests, attached to a helium balloon.
"For me the most special of these was the liquid nitrogen dessert that we did for 150 people. We had 40 chefs working simultaneously on the night, with music to go with it. We had to do a lot of practice before the event, but it went very well," Cabannes said.
The triumphant pastry chef has also been reponsible for introducing Atlantis' first own brand of chocolate to the resort. "I’m very proud of it, it’s my little baby," he commented, explaining that the development of this product took him to chocolate plantations in Vietnam, before spending several days in France to work on a finished product that is now sold as house-made pralines at the resort.
Looking ahead to 2017, Cabannes tells us his pastry trend predictions are a greater focus on healthier and more allergy friendly recipes, including a focus on gluten-free desserts.
"I believe we will have to totally change the way we think about desserts, to be less sweet, maybe egg free, maybe nut free. We will have to work on that. I have to follow what my guests want," he added.
The Caterer Awards 2016 took place on June 1 at the Conrad Dubai. The event was sponsored by Al Rawdah, Aqua Panna- S.Pellegrino, Aramtec, Bragard, Dallmayr, Figjam, MMI, Patron, Ronai, SampleMe, Sial and TSSC.
Patrice Cabannes pipped a number of talented peers to the post in this category, including Achala WeeraSinghe, pastry chef at the Madinat Jumeirah, who received the highly commended award in this category.
To see the full Caterer Awards 2016 shortlist for pastry chef of the year, click here.
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