Nielsen-Massey sponsors winning pastry team

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Cured vanilla beans to be used by Nielsen-Massey Vanillas. | Special to Sun-Times Media

Updated: July 30, 2011 2:08AM

WAUKEGAN — Nielsen-Massey Vanillas products were used by three top chefs to create the winning entry in the recently ended 2011 National Pastry Team Championship.

The biennial contest was held in Phoenix, Ariz. and featured 12 of the nation’s top pastry chefs. In addition to winning the top award, the team sponsored by Nielsen-Massey won the Degustation Award, which acknowledges outstanding taste.

The winning team was led by veteran chef Donald Wressell, who was named “Pastry Chef of the Year” by the Organizing Committee of the 2005 National Pastry Team Championship. Scott Green and Joshua Johnson rounded out the top team. They are both instructors at The French Pastry School in Chicago.

The winning team is moving on to represent the U.S. in next year’s World Pastry Team Championship.

The theme of this year’s contest was “Your Favorite Book.” During the two-day competition, each team was asked to incorporate the theme into eight categories, including sugar showpiece, chocolate showpiece and three types of petits gateaux.

The winning pastries were crafted with Nielsen-Massey products, including Madagascar, Tahitian and Mexican vanilla beans.

Nielsen-Massey, headquartered in Waukegan, has sponsored a National Pastry Team for the past 11 years. Several of those teams have won a medal, and two teams have won the competition and moved on to the World Pastry Team Championship with one team winning the World Championship.

The company also announced that for the third year in a row, it has been named a 2011 National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, Inc. “sofi Award” silver finalist. Its Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste has been selected by a national panel of specialty food experts for the second year in a row.

“We are dedicated to producing the highest-quality vanilla and pure flavor products in the industry as proven by our numerous sofi Awards. We are honored to once again be named a Silver Award finalist,” said Matt Nielsen, chief operations officer.

Since 1991, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas has been honored with four silver and one gold “sofi Award.”