Years of effort behind King of Bakers title
TONY Blackey is no stranger to receiving accolades at the annual King of the Bakers contest, but until this year he’d never taken home the crown.
This year he placed in 16 categories and earned four major awards including the title of 2019 King of the Bakers at the Heritage Bank Toowoomba Royal Bread Show.
The trophy shelf in his High Street Plaza shop was beginning to feel the weight after wins in a number of categories over the past seven years, and Mr Blackey said it was knowledge gained from years of minor wins that finally came together this year.
The victory was sweeter than ever because this year’s event was up by nearly 200 entries on 2018 for the the 50th year of the competition.
It took a full week to prepare his prize-worthy pastries for more than 30 categories and he said it all came together well on the day.
Mr Blackey has been a baker for the best part of two decades and opened Antony’s Bakery in the High Street Plaza about seven years ago.
“When we opened the doors a customer recommended the competition and I started off by just entering the bread category because I didn’t know what to expect,” he said.
“But the last few years I’ve gone in every category and improved a lot.”
He said while he’d put in a lot of effort to perfect his bread recipe to the judges’ tastes, his heart was really in the cake and pastry sections.