France has won the Junior Pastry World Cup, the world’s only team event aimed at Under-23 talents. The competition was held at Sigep 2024 (taking January 20-24 at Rimini Expo Centre in Italy) for the seventh edition with 11 teams competing.

The winning team consisted of two young pastry chefs and a team manager, Pierre-Henri Roullard, Alistair Smith and Julien Maheux. Second place went to Chinese Taipei, with the trio Kuo Yi Lee, Che Wei Lee and Shang Cheng Wang; while Hong Kong, with Yiu Man Roger Fok, Lok Yin Lee and Ho Man Yiu, came in third.

This year’s theme, chosen by contest chairman Roberto Rinaldini, was ‘Myths and Legends’: describing a myth or legend of the team’s home country to enhance its culture and history through the pastry chefs' creations. With 22 nations competing, the artwork came from all over the world: Australia, Chile, the Philippines, France, Peru, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Malta, South Korea and Uzbekistan.

The different trials ranged from artistic chocolate and sugar presentation to modern chocolate cake, a typical street food dessert from their home country and a vegan glass sorbet. They were judged by an international jury consisting of the team managers of the 11 teams with Maestro Iginio Massari as president of honor and Maestro Eugenio Morrone as president of the jury.