Guilbaud’s Pastry Chef Claims Valrhona Pâtisserie Prize

The pastry chef at Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, Aoife Noonan, was the maker of the winning dessert at the Valrhona Pâtisserie Championship yesterday in Dublin. The theme for this year's event was "Stress". Contestants were invited to create a plated dessert passed on the line "stress that helps us break new ground."   Her winning dessert, named Java Cake, consisted of a Coeur de Guanaja cremeux and espresso jelly on a chocolate pâte sablée base, completed with a Jivara tube filled with Tia Maria espuma and accompanied by a Guanaja and Tonka sorbet.   “Coffee plays a significant role for me in dealing with my day-to-day work life. A double espresso every morning and between shifts tends to give me a caffeine fix to enable me to drive and push myself in a stressful environment. The coffee-and-chocolate combination was an obvious one,” said Noonan.   Contestants also had to make a street-food version of their dessert. Noonan's was called the Espresso Shot and was made up of a Tia Maria sphere coated in Ivoire chocolate and rolled in a Coeur de Guanaja sablée, crushed coffee beans and Jivara tuile.   Noonan wins an expenses-paid three-day training course in l’Ecole du Grand Chocolat, Valrhona in Tain l’Hermitage, France and a tasting menu in Maison Pic, a three-star Michelin restaurant in Valence.