Gallery: Australia Comes Third at the World Panettone Championships

No matter how passionate a panettone proponent you are, Melbourne-based baker Quentin Berthonneau’s obsession with the yeasty beast – a dome-looking, cake-like Italian bread traditionally served around Christmas – will put yours to shame.

The Q le Baker and Oji House founder led the first ever Australian team in the Panettone World Championships, held across Milan and Verona from October 13 to 18. (Berthonneau, a French native, previously competed in his motherland’s team in 2023.)

This year, he coached a band of baking brothers – To Be Frank founder Franco Villalva, AP Bakery head pastry chef Simon Veauvy and Abbots and Kinney founder Jonny Pisanelli – who took home four accolades and placed third overall.

But this was no slapdash success for Australia. A serious competition required serious preparation, and rigorous recipe testing ahead of the event was only half the battle.

One strict rule was that each of the 12 competing countries had to use a “mother yeast” from home. Given Berthonneau was in Europe for months ahead of the championships, “I had to buy a mini prover to plug into the car, to keep our starter alive”, he tells Broadsheet.

Recipes were locked and loaded, but the rest of the team arrived a week before the competition to train using the same local ingredients – and small benchtops – as their game days: two marathon sessions lasting from 6am to midnight. Berthonneau methodically organised tasks into 10-minute time slots to ensure they all got done. “I’m a bit of a geek,” he says. “I love using spreadsheets to work out the ratios.”

Then it was time to put planning into practice – but not before using BYO thermometers to check the oven temperatures were bang-on, matching those they trained with.

Six teams competed at a time, each baking 10 identical classic and chocolate panettoni; 10 “innovative” panettoni with ice-cream; 20 single-portion desserts made with panettone dough; three freely decorated panettoni; and a flower-shaped sourdough.

“The hardest part was being able to fit everything in one prover and one oven, which could only bake six [panettoni] at once,” says Berthonneau, who was on coaching duties while the other team members physically competed. “I was overseeing, and getting bananas, electrolytes and protein bars from the organic store so they didn’t crash.”

Taiwan came first overall in the blind tasting, with Argentina in second place. But the Aussies had plenty to celebrate.

Australia took home gold in the “innovative” category with a laminated croissant-panettone hybrid infused with lemon myrtle and candied Meyer lemon, and served with “super comforting” vanilla gelato and Davidson’s plum granita. They were also best in show for laboratory organisation and waste management, ensuring the panettoni looked identical without too much surplus. Their classic Milanese panettone ranked second.

As much as it was a competition, the camaraderie ran deep. “When any team was pulling panettoni out the oven, skewering them and hanging them upside down, everyone would stop and applaud,” says Berthonneau. “We all really supported each other.”

panettoneworldchampionship.com