A budding chef aims to turn passion into a career
MAKING pastries, doing exercises and learning English have become a daily routine for Wang Yi over the last month.
She is preparing for the 46th WorldSkills Competition, known as the Olympic Games for skilled workers.
The competition will be held in Shanghai in 2021.
“I have confidence in myself. I believe that skills can change fate,” she said.
“I hope one day I can become an executive pastry chef.”
Wang is among seven candidates who were selected to represent Shanghai for a tryout for the national team in the patisserie and confectionery category.
The tryout is scheduled during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival from June 25 to 27.
Wang started making pastries by following online video lessons in the summer of 2017 after she enrolled as a pastry student at the Shanghai Business and Tourism School.
In 2012, the school signed a cooperation deal with the world’s leading culinary academy Le Cordon Bleu.
“We learned how to make pastries and English as well. Now, I can basically understand what foreign teachers say,” she said.
“We also have the chance to study for IELTS (English language test) and one of my classmates obtained 7.5 bands in the test.”
Due to her talent and English background, Wang was selected as a Shanghai representative for WorldSkills last October.
Another key point, according to Gan, is stamina because participants are required to make a variety of pastries and confectionaries including cakes, marzipan and sugar paste within three days.
Wang said she has benefited from the one-month training, developing a better awareness of work organization and food hygiene.
“This has been largely neglected by most Chinese pastry students but is counted in the total performance during the competition,” Gan said.
“I hope Chinese pastry can be added to the category in the competition in the future.”