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Competitions and Awards

For details on the 2010 New Zealand Young Baker of the Year click here.

 

Richard Mehana - New Zealand’s Young Baker of the Year 2009

The NZ Young Baker of the Year competition is run by the New Zealand Association of Bakers and is open to all bakers in New Zealand that have completed their qualification within the past 2 years.  Participants are tested on their practical baking skills as well as completing a written exam, research, a presentation and an interview over the course of one day.  The judges’ panel is made up of people from within the baking industry. This year there were eight nominations - requiring a pre test prior to the competition - which brought the numbers down to six nominations who competed for the award. 

This year’s winner was Richard Mehana from Quality Bakers Auckland.

Richard began working at Quality Bakers Auckland in February 2004.  He began his Plant Baking Apprenticeship in March 2006, signing on as a Modern Apprentice because of his age, and he did his training on Plant 1.  During his apprenticeship he was nominated by his Plant Manager to compete in the Quality Bakers Apprentice of the Year.  This was a very close competition and the two occasions Richard entered it provided him valuable experience and confidence for the future.  He completed his Level 4 qualification in February 2009 which made him eligible to enter the New Zealand Young Baker of the Year.

Richard’s research and presentation topic for the Young Baker of the Year competition was the Accurist 2 divider.  This is a relatively new design of divider, with none currently in production in New Zealand or Australia.  Richard did most of his research through the Baker Perkins web site but also contacted Geoff Hawley, their Sales Manager for this region of the world, and Andy Boyce, their local representative.  Richard’s all round performance was the key to his win and he receives a cup and a research grant up to $10,000 for research such as overseas travel to look at new technology, ingredients, process or trends in products.  

As Richard was aged under 23 on January 1 2009, he was also nominated to represent New Zealand, (and of course Goodman Fielder), in the LA Judge Award held at the Bread Research Institute in Sydney.  This award is seen as the most prestigious award available in Australia and this years Award was the 42nd time it had been competed for.  Richard competed extremely well in this event with his scores coming very close to the winning candidate.

 

The LA Judge Award

“Supporting Skills Development in the Australasian Baking Industry”

The LA Judge Award is a three-day event that takes place in May each year. Bakers who are just about to complete, or have just completed, their apprenticeship compete to win the prestigious award.

Candidates are tested on practical baking skills, technical knowledge and presentation and communication skills.

For more information, visit the official website www.lajudgeaward.com.au

 

2008 Young Baker of the Year - Steve Beamish

As the recipient of the 2008 Young Baker of the year award, I was able to use my research grant to take two overseas trips – the first of these was an invitation to attend an expo at Baker Perkins in Peterborough, London. Bakeries from all over the world were represented; including New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden just to name a few.

We spent one of two days touring the Baker Perkins factory with the benefit of well structured presentations and technicians on hand to answer our questions. The bulk of the tour was centred around three new innovative products from Baker Perkins.
1. The tweedy pressure vacuum mixer – Established enhancements and future developments
2. The Accurist 2 Dough Divider – Direct drive controlled server, and
3. The Multitex4 Moulder – Quality benefits within this stage.

It was clear from the start that Baker Perkins have had to adapt to changes in legislation and customers expectations of what quality product is. Equipment now has H&S and Food Safety aspects incorporated into its design albeit sometimes at the cost of efficiency.

The 2nd Day was made up of a site visit to Jackson’s of Hull, a bakery whose sole business is to bake bread for sandwiches. This means that the specs are tight and need to be controlled every step of the way. The plants were initially losing money on branded product and made the decision to close all plants bar one and to expand and upgrade the plant that was left. They even decided to change the product running through their plant and to focus on a market that had few players in it. As a result they are now making record profit and have the largest share of this particular market which extends also into parts of Europe.

My last trip was to the UBE Factory in Compton, Los Angeles where I was able to inspect the new safety features on baggers ordered for the New Zealand market. A tour of the factory gave me an opportunity to see differing stages of the baggers being built. A number of changes have been made around Health and Safety which included a light curtain between the slicer and bagger which stops the machine as soon as the beam is broken. This is currently non existent on our baggers and will decrease the risk factor by 95 - 100%.
Also evident was the fact that UBE have less moving parts in their baggers which means from a food safety aspect there is less areas for grease and crumb to become entrapped.

On the same day I had the opportunity to visit 2 small bakeries, both of which had some interesting concepts that have helped me understand the US bakery market in great depth.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Baking Industry Research Trust for the opportunity to make these trips and I would encourage all emerging bakers to participate in these awards.

Steve Beamish
2008 Young Baker of the Year