14 March 2024 – the first day of the 15th edition of GastroPan international exhibition, the largest exhibition for the bakery, pastry, confectionery, gelato, chocolate, milling and HoReCa industry in Romania, where the change of the industry begins for specialists in these fields.
Organizers, associations, patronages, officials, bakers, confectioners, chefs, specialists in the field – were present at the exhibition stands full of machinery, equipment, raw materials, solutions, packaging, utensils and much more of the top manufacturers, suppliers and distributors from Romania and abroad. People interested in developing their own businesses held discussions, tasted new, innovative products, never-before-seen ingredients and visualized technologies and processes ready to make the work of the staff easier.
The cake with caramelized walnuts, honey sheets and cherries won the Cake of the Year 2024 award!
At GastroPan 2024, a long-awaited competition took place to designate the most spectacular and delicious cake of the year. With joy, dozens of confectioners gathered with boundless creativity and imagination, local, traditional ingredients, an appearance that stole the eyes of every visitor, but also a special elegance – these were just a few characteristics that characterized the products exhibited at the Confectionery category, the Cake of the Year 2024 section.
After a careful and rigorous analysis of all the participating cakes, the jury decided that the title of "Cake of the Year 2024" belongs to Gabriela Mirică, a confectioner with an extraordinary creativity and talent in the art of confectionery who used a top with Romanian walnuts, layer crispy with baked walnut praline and crispy egg white flakes, honey sheets, cream based on caramelized honey and sweet cream, black cherry jam, Bavarian milk chocolate, caramel glaze and baked walnut praline, jelly cherries and chocolate decoration and dried honey cherry jelly popcorn.
The winners of the CONFECTIONERY section, CAKE OF THE YEAR 2024 category are:
First place: Gabriela Mirică, MONCRIS
Second place: Tufă Georgian-Ștefan, SWEET DESSERT
Third place: Claudia Prie, LABORATOARELE REMEDIA
Romanian fairy tales, folklore and traditions through sugar paste creations
In the Artistic piece category, competitors who had the challenge of presenting an artistic piece composed of structural and decorative elements obtained exclusively from sugar paste, mounted on an artificial model (polystyrene).
The winning entry impressed the jury with its ability to capture the essence and beauty of Romanian fairy tales, folklore and traditions. The winner used 9 Romanian proverbs hidden in the work exposed through sugar paste, waffle, edible flowers, isomalt.
The art of gastronomy through the eyes of the young generation
Particular attention is paid to the ideas and trends proposed and implemented by the younger generations of students and pupils. In this sense, the teams made up of them had the opportunity to create a festive plate using seafood and fish, accompanied by a traditional Romanian dessert. The participants, being young, felt strong emotions related to the success of the presentation, but the result was impressive and exceeded expectations!
The winners of the GASTRONOMY section, the STUDENT COOK DAY category are:
First place: team of Silvia Jepan, Alexandra Margalina, Reileanu Andrei, Olaru Anamaria, Hortista Rareș, Iacob Cristian from UNIVERSITATEA TRANSILVANIA DIN BRAȘOV, Brașov
Second place: team of Albineș Giulia, Dumitru Cristina Georgiana, Alexandra Elena, Andreea Valentina, Valentina Denisa from LICEUL TEHNOLOGIC MATEI BASARAB, Maxineni
Third place: team of Grecu Răzvan, Mihalache Robert from COLEGIUL TEHNIC SIMION MEHEDINTE, Codlea
Congratulations to the talented pastry chefs who worked day in and day out to show their imagination, creativity, way of working through the best assortments of confectionery products and stunning artistic works in GastroPan Competitions 2024, but also to all the young chefs for their ingenuity, talent and the professionalism with which they prepared for GastroPan Competitions 2024. Thanks to all participants, competitors and judges for showing thoroughness, respect and dedication to the culinary art!
The GastroPan exhibition continues on Friday from 10:00 to 18:00 and on Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00. Entry is made by filling in the access slip, which is available free of charge on www.gastropan.ro or by filling it out on site.
