The nation’s top pastry chefs will flex their talent in the Emmy award-winning Chicago Restaurant Pastry Competition (CRPC) during Season Four: Freaks of the Industry.
Presented by JMPurePastry, executive producers Jimmy and Julie MacMillan’s competition follows four top level U.S. pastry chefs as they prove their mastery of pastry techniques through a trio of dessert challenges.
The CRPC series films March 14 and 15 at the Chicago School of Mold Making in Oak Park, Ill. and will release online in the fall.
“Pastry chefs can certainly be considered the ‘freaks’ of the restaurant kitchen. They keep crazy hours, long outlasting the kitchen staff and obsessing over every gram and chemical property of pastry ingredients,” says event organizer Jimmy MacMillan. “This ‘freakishly’ obsessive quality is responsible for beautiful and delicious sweets and chocolates.”
The chef finalists include Tyler Atwell of Boulud Sud in New York; Deden Putra of The Peninsula New York, Kei Hasegawa of Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills, California; and Evan Sheridan of The Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary, North Carolina.
The four chef finalists were selected from dozens of international submissions in a ‘blind judging’ committee consisting of CRPC judges, designers and chefs. Their pastry designs, ingredient choices and overall aesthetic appeal will be judged during the competition by three celebrity tasting judges: Antonio Bachour from St. Regis Bal Harbor and author of Bachour Simply Beautiful, Mailka Ameen from Top Chef ‘Just Desserts’ by Mdesserts, and National Pastry Champion Fred Monti from PreGel Corporate.
During the competition, chefs will contend with two challenges from previous seasons—the Mystery Casting and Signature Plated Dessert challenges—as well as the latest Artisan Confectionery Challenge.
“Each season of the CRPC adds a layer of complexity, and this year we are adding the Artisan Confectionery Challenge, a delicate preparation of nougats, caramels, and bonbons that tests each chef’s ability to enhance simple desserts with unique flavors and spices,” says Julie MacMillan.
