RVO receives BESA Best Stand Award at FSA Expo 2010

1 July 2010  

RVO Enterprises Managing Director Wilhelm Harnacke receiving the BESA Best Stand Award from Mr Paul McDonald, General Manager of National Baking Industry of Australia

The Bakery Equipment Suppliers Association (BESA) awarded RVO Enterprises the BESA Best Stand Award for the design and overall marketing impact of its exhibition stand at FoodService Australia Expo (FSA) 2010.

The exhibition was held on June 21-23 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour, where about 120 companies supplying foodservice and bakery equipment showcased their products and services.

Mr Paul McDonald, General Manager of National Baking Industry of Australia (NBIA), announced RVO Enterprises as the winner of the BESA Best Stand Award and presented it to Wilhelm Harnacke, RVO Managing Director.

“As the peak employer association within Australia’s Baking Industry, NBIA (through our official journal Australasian Baker), is proud to be able to support BESA through its ‘Best Stand Award’ as we encourage excellence and innovation through all facets of the industry – machinery suppliers and their marketing endeavours included,” Mr McDonald stated.

BESA is an association of major importers, distributors, manufacturers and suppliers of bakery equipment in Australia.

BESA members who joined the exhibition cast votes to select the winning stand.

Layout and Design

From left to right: Ryan Lantieri (Supplier Principal, FoodTools Inc), and from RVO Enterprises: Urbano Mattiolo (Snr Technician), Darren Murphy (Sales), Wilhelm Harnacke (Managing Director), Kelly Brown (PA/Marketing), and Bob O’Mara (Director)

RVO’s stand featured graphics that made strong visual impact even from a distance. Two 4x 4 meter banners hang from the ceiling. At the centre of the stand is a 3 x 3 meter cube structure; the top of its walls were cut into angles, with the highest point reaching 5 meters.

Although this structure was custom-built for the company’s signage, its function extends beyond that of a graphic element.

It provided the backdrop to convey a ‘shop front’ look — ovens and other bakery equipment were built-in to show how mixing, baking and chilling equipment can be integrated in a retail environment.

A door on one side of this structure leads to a walk-in storage room where electric cables and switches, spare brochures, raw ingredients and staff’s personal items were kept out of sight and out of the way.

With storage taken care of, exhibition space  was used to full extent for equipment display and product demonstrations. 

There was even a visitors’ lounge area, where people can sit comfortably, talk to staff, or watch video presentations from two flat-panel TV screens.

Equipment on display

On display during the show were a Polin Mixer, Convection Oven, Blast Chiller/Freezer,  Cyclothermic Deck Oven,  and a Multidrop Biscuit machine, a range of Unifiller Depositors and FoodTools automatic slicing machine.

There was a demonstration of how donuts are made using a Belshaw Automatic Donut Fryer, and how they can be filled efficiently using an Edhard Depositor. While the donuts are frying, an underbench RVO Air Filtration System extracted and filtered the air, eliminating the need for an exhaust vent.

This is the second time the company won the BESA Best Stand award. In 2008, RVO Enterprises received the award for its presentation of the environmentally-friendly Polin oven range.

On both occasions, RVO Enterprises collaborated with designer Connie Iaria of Iaria Creative.

Asian Pastry Cup 2010 winners announced

29 April 2010

The trio of experienced pastry chefs Dean Gibson, Adriano Zumbo and Jian Yao represented Australia in the 2010 Asian Pastry Cup in Singapore held on April 20-22.

Adriano Zumbo, Jian Yao, and Dean Gibson (far right) with President-Founder of World Pastry Cup Gabriel Paillasson (2nd from right)

Despite a well-executed display of pastry artisan skills, the team took fifth place, only a few points away from the chance to progress to the World Pastry Cup 2011 in France. The 4 teams that made it to the World Cup were Singapore, in first place, and runners-up Taiwan, Malaysia and China.

Australia missed out on the medals but gained a lot from the experience. Team manager and coach Jian Yao agrees. “Now we can pass on the experience to the next team.”

“Overall, joining these competitions is a very good thing for our industry. Since the start, we were pretty open; the industry is aware of the team preparations. We’ve got so many pastry chefs who came during the training, there was so much interest. And at the Asian Pastry Cup, we were able to show the world what Australia can do,” Jian concluded.

Zumbo and Gibson with their completed masterpieces being presented for judging

RVO Enterprises is one of the sponsors of the Australian team. RVO Managing Director, Wilhelm Harnacke declares, “We supported this endeavour to help showcase the Australian pastry industry and its capabilities to the world.”

Held every two years, the Asian Pastry Cup has been a platform for top pastry chefs to exchange ideas, sharpen their skills and achieve new heights in pastry craftsmanship.

RVO sponsors Australian Team to Asian Pastry Cup 2010

19 April 2010  

from left: Dean Gibson, Adriano Zumbo, Jian Yao. Image courtesy of Continental Patisserie

RVO Enterprises proudly sponsors the Australian Team to the Asian Pastry Cup 2010 in Singapore this April.

‘Team Pastry Australia’ is made up of Adriano Zumbo, creator of the remarkable croquembouche on Channel 10’s Masterchef last year, and Dean Gibson, pastry chef and teacher at Hamilton TAFE. Jian Yao, owner of Continental Patisserie at Strathfield, is the team coach and manager.

The Asian Pastry Cup is the qualifying competition where the emerging top 4 teams will represent Asia Pacific in the World Pastry Cup 2011 in Lyon, France.

Training and preparation

With less than 4 months of preparation, team manager Yao said that commitment and dedication have been very crucial.

“The general level of Australian craftsmanship and skills is high. But we needed to do intensive training in such a short period. We have to be ready to face strong competition from China, Taiwan and Singapore,” Jian Yao said.

Just before heading off for Singapore, the team did a ‘full production run’ following the same time frame as the competition.

In an 8-hour period, the team created their competition masterpieces: 1 chocolate showpiece, 1 sugar showpiece, 2 chocolate cakes and 18 identical plated desserts.

Watching Gibson and Zumbo at work on their showpieces, their passion for pastry art is undeniable.

Putting together the masterpieces

Concentrating on the task, Gibson carefully put together the chocolate masterpiece, which slowly transformed into an egret, a water bird, ready to take off, surrounded by an arrangement of plants and water features, all made with dark chocolate.

Zumbo have been equally hard at work with the sugar masterpiece, stretching and forming these into fluid shapes, elegant flowers, animal forms and patterns with colours inspired by the Australian wetlands.

Besides the visual artistry of the pieces, the ingredients and flavours the team used were another sensory treat. Like the adventurous take on the Australian team’s chocolate cake – the richness of chocolate combined with a hint of lime, pine nuts and aniseed. The plated dessert is also a fusion of flavours with lime marshmallows, strawberry jelly, pistachio sauce and ginger ice cream.

This creative presentation, along, with the bold combination of sweet / savoury flavours is aimed at getting the international judging panel’s attention.

Working together

When asked about working with Dean Gibson, who was his former mentor, Adriano Zumbo replied, “It was a pleasure to work with Dean. I am feeling confident to face the challenges of the Asian Pastry Cup.” Their teamwork is evident as they work closely together, helping in setting up each other’s masterpieces and sharing in the task of plating the desserts.

“Our objective is to be one of the top teams to qualify for the World Pastry Cup in France. We aim to get as much marks on all on our masterpieces, the cakes and the desserts,” Gibson added. Teams will be judged on professional skills and ability to provide practical demonstration of trends and pastry art skills to an audience.

By joining this competition, the team aims to uplift the profile of the Australian pastry industry on an international level. Sharing the same vision, RVO Enterprises has given their full support to the Australian team.

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