TEAM MEMBERS

Ciril Hitz - Artistic Design
Originally from St. Gallen Switzerland, Ciril moved to the U.S. in grade school. After earning a B.F.A. in Industrial Design with concentration in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design he returned to Switzerland to find inspiration and get back to his roots. Looking at marzipan and traditional artistic bread sculptures inspired Ciril to take on a three year apprenticeship at a pastry shop in Rohrshach Switzerland to focus his skills. Upon returning to the U.S. he worked in several pastry shops in Providence Rhode Island and is currently a chef instructor in the Pastry Arts program at Johnson and Wales University.

Tim Healea - Viennoiserie
After earning a journalism degree from Northwestern University, Tim found himself working as a magazine editor in New York and wanted to do something more creative. He liked the idea that with cooking he could feed his own desire to express his creativity and at the same time feed other people. He enrolled in Peter Kump's New York Cooking School culinary program. Originally from outside Seattle, Washington, Tim jumped at the chance to move back to the Northwest when there was an opportunity to work with Greg Mistell at Pearl bakery in Portland, Oregon. Greg, who was a member of the 1994 U.S. Baking Team, encouraged Tim to try out for the team. The creative challenge keeps Tim baking. He says, "Bread is so simple and basic but always changing every day. It requires a good knowledge of art and science. It's a good combination to work with."

Tim Foley - Baguette and Specialty Breads
Tim attended the California Culinary Academy where he met his wife Pat. It was she who encouraged him to try out for the team. Tim was a chef in a French restaurant in Chicago when he and his wife got the chance to purchase Bit of Swiss Bakery in Stevensville, Michigan, near Pat's home town. Tim says "Bakeries still require long hours of work but they don't have the intensity of a restaurant." The lifestyle appeals to him, as he is now able to be home for dinner with his children. While fine tuning his baking skills in order to update his bakeries products Tim attended the 1996 Coupe Du Monde Competition but never thought he would be in it. After owning his bakery for fifteen years Tim finds it is running smoothly and he now has the time to devote to practicing his technique. Tim says that his culinary background with his classical French training in kitchens gives him discipline, which helps in baking. He sees being on the team as a chance to further improve his baking skills and his bakery's products. "There is a lot of teamwork involved in the business, and this is a chance to improve the quality of the bread that Bit of Swiss makes with so much exposure to so many bakers."

TEAM HELPERS

Philippe Lecorre
Philippe gave his guidance to the 1999 U.S. Baking team and has returned to help this year's team. He has been working in baking for twenty-two years, beginning with a six-year apprenticeship in Paris with the world famous baker Gaston Le Notre. In 1984 he came to the U.S. for what was to be a one-year position as a pastry chef for the Hotel Sofitel Group and stayed to later open the Minneapolis Hilton and Towers as the pastry chef. In Minneapolis, where he now lives with his wife and two children, Philippe met Tom McMahon the founder of the Bread Bakers Guild of America and the National Baking Center and became an instructor at the center. Philippe is now consulting, and between trips to Asia, he will help out the team and come to as many practices and as he can.

Didier Rosada
Didier, who started baking at 16 years old, was involved in helping the 1996 and 1999 U.S. baking teams. Originally from Toulouse, France, Didier came to the U.S. in the early 1990's and worked with Tom McMahon on a private research project, then went on to become an instructor at the National Baking Center. He currently travels extensively throughout Asia and the U.S. consulting, and writes technical articles for the Guild. Along with Philippe he helps develop technique and formulas for the team and gives technical assistance, preparing the team to use French flours and dairy products, which will be much different from the American products they have been practicing with.

Craig Ponsford
As a graduate of the California Culinary Academy Craig worked for well-known California bakeries Grace and Semifreddis before opening his own bakery with his family in Sonoma. Constantly striving to improve his products, Craig visited the Europan convention and the Coupe du Monde competition in 1992. He returned in 1994 to watch the first US team and his friend Greg Mistell compete. In 1996, under the guidance of Didier Rosada, Craig represented Baking Team U.S.A. in the Baguette and Specialty Breads category. The team took home the gold medal for this category. The intense practice schedule and the techniques he picked from the bakers he met from around the world during the competition dramatically improved the quality of the bread he was able to produce in his own bakery. He continues to be involved in the Coupe du Monde competition, and helped to coach the 1999 team to the first all-round victory and this year he is the team manager and a judge. (He can do both because he's not allowed to vote for his own team.)

David Norman
David began baking fifteen years ago while finishing his studies in German Literature at the University of Florida. Living abroad in Sweden and Germany left him with a craving for great bread and he started baking bread and brewing beer both professionally and on his own. He continued to expand his baking and production skills working in bakeries in Minneapolis, Seattle and New York and teaching in the bread baking program at the French Culinary Institute in New York. Currently David is the head of bread production at Bouley Bakery in New York and an instructor at the San Francisco Baking Institute. Originally aiming to acquire skills that could be transferred to some other field, David came to the conclusion that baking was a challenging and deeply satisfying career choice.

The first official practice for Baking Team USA was a productive accomplishment as well as a fun gathering of old and new friends. The team members first met each other at the finals in Indianapolis and then got together at the IBA convention in Las Vegas, but this was their first opportunity to spend several days of intensive baking and critiquing, as well as a little beer drinking, together as a team. During the practice at the San Francisco Baking Institute a steady stream of professional bakers and friends in the industry came in to meet the team and share experiences and techniques while they mixed and shaped their doughs. This experience is what the Coupe du Monde competition is all about for those involved. It is above all a friendly competition. To team members or helpers who originate from competing countries nationalism is not an issue. Philippe Lecorre says, in his charming French accent, "We take it at heart, the respect for the profession of baking....The competition is a chance to push yourself to develop new ideas and formulas, look at the product with a critical eye and develop relationships with new people. The human contact is rewarding."

The competition was set up to promote a brotherhood with all bakers. In Paris, members from all the different teams stay in the same hotel, eat together, go out together, and tell each other international jokes about bakers and fermentation. At the end of the competition the winning team publishes and shares it's formulas. There are not many women in the international brotherhood of bakers but those who come are welcomed, they just have to get used to the jokes and continuous baker's banter.

In this early stage of practicing the team members are freely experimenting and brainstorming to come up with new techniques and ingredient combinations which they will refine over the next few months. Before gathering for the practice each team member talked to quite a few other experienced bakers and gathered formulas, as well as developing formulas of their own. Tim and Tim each arrived with five promising formulas. During each day they each made all five of their products and then sat down with the group of coaches, helpers and official tasters for a critique. The group tried to think up new nicknames to tell the two Tims apart and offered advice and opinions on the products. After the first day Tim Foley changed the percentage of preferment in three of his final doughs. Tim Healea changed some of his hydration levels and refined his fillings to balance delicate flavors and disperse small bites of filling or macerated fruit in every bite. Ciril worked on incorporating more live doughs into his final piece and experimented with a visiting artist on different sculptural shapes and surfaces that can be obtained with dough. All in all the team is in great shape. Team manager Craig Ponsford said that the skill level displayed at the first practice is as high as other teams have achieved further along and with so much time ahead to practice the team should end up with excellent products.

One of the main focuses of the practice and preparation for the international competition is to refine the American products in order to fit the tradition of the European taste in bread and pastry. The team is working on moving away from the American habits of strong flavor combinations and large mouthfuls of fillings. Any overpowering elements are toned down to more subtle, balanced proportions. Less is more when it comes to the judges who have to taste at least thirty products a day. The judges will have only one or two bites of each contestant's product so it is important that each bite contain all the elements of flavor and texture that the team members have been working on throughout the year. In order for this year's team to repeat its 1999 win it is important to make every bite count.