L’Auberge pastry chefs win big at national championship

As Arlety Estévez measured out some sugar that would be used for her decorative piece at the 2013 Pastry Live National Showpiece Championship in Atlanta, she noticed she started trembling.

“I felt like a little child,” Estévez says. “I was so excited, but I was nervous.”

Estévez is the pastry chef at L’Auberge Casino & Hotel in Baton Rouge. She teamed up with L’Auberge Casino and Resorts pastry chef Bill Foltz of Lake Charles to compete in the big sugar display contest. The competition featured noted chefs from around the country, building tall art pieces made completely of sugar with only seven hours to complete the job. This year’s theme was “The Art of Illusion.”

After the stress of the competition died down, L’Auberge’s pastry chefs took top awards in the championship. The team’s showpiece, titled “Deceptive to the Eye,” won Best Artistry, Best Sugar Showpiece and Competitor’s Choice Award—three of the five awards given.

The piece is surreal, with curving rods and big, blue eyes all around. Under the eyes, the chefs wrote in the piece’s title. With a mixture of yellow and deep reds, the sugar statue also features floral designs as well as an abstract magician, who is holding a staff. The piece staands around three feet tall, and it took the team multiple practices to get everything right.

“We met at least four times to build it,” she says. “There were three more pre-planning practices where we built the display with paper and made sure our measurements were right. Every time,

Estévez has worked for the Baton Rouge casino and hotel for about a year and says she was shocked by the accolades.

“It was crazy,” she says. “It felt very good. You want to scream a little bit. When we got the first award, we thought it was cool because that’s your peers who think yours is the best. Usually you get the first award and that’s it, but the very next award was given to us, and I was shocked.”

This was Estévez’s first big showpiece competition and her first award-winning display.

“To get this felt great,” she says. “It gives you that confirmation. Being able to be there with chefs who are older than me and putting myself out there … working as a team and hearing the feedback … it was great knowing we could put out a product like this.” —Matthew Sigur