Two Galway pastry chefs set to compete in Irish Pâtisserie Championship Finals

Two talented pastry chefs from Galway have made it to the finals of the Irish Pâtisserie Championship.

Juliette Simon of Grá Chocolates and Asia Mahealani McDonagh of Mahealani Pastries are among the six on the shortlist who will show their skills at DNA ‘Pastry Unwrapped’ – the highly anticipated industry conference set for May 27 at TU Dublin’s Grangegorman campus.

Juliette and Asia will join finalists from Dublin, Kilkenny and Belfast to compete live at the conference, creating a plant-based café gourmandise dessert, a plated restaurant-style dessert, and a stunning chocolate showpiece.

The champion will benefit from an all-expenses-paid trip to Dubai, where they will have the opportunity to refine their pastry skills in the L’École Valrhona, alongside some of the world’s top pastry chefs – bringing back invaluable expertise to Ireland.

The finalists recently benefited from a chocolate masterclass with head chefs and chocolatiers Cyril Borie and Erik Van Der Veken of Odaios Foods Co-Lab Training Academy.

Originally from France, Juliette has always been surrounded by cooking and baking at home which inspired her interest in pursuing the craft as a career. She began an apprenticeship in pastry back home ten years ago and is now a pâtissier at Grá Chocolates. She looks forward to continuing to work with chocolate and pâtisserie as her skillset grows.

Asia is also an experienced pastry chef with ten years of training and working on her craft in Paris. She now lives in Galway with her husband where she has her own pâtisserie business, Mahealani Pastries, creating custom cakes and desserts.

Pictured: Asia Mahealani McDonagh (left) of Mahealani Pastries, and Juliette Simon of Grá Chocolates, two of the six talented pastry chefs that are set to compete for the prestigious title of Irish Pâtisserie Champion in the Odaios Foods Irish Patisserie Championship.

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