Where did it all start? How did you fall in love with cooking, pastry and chocolate?

I have always baked. As a child, I often helped my mum and grandma in the kitchen, especially on birthdays and at Christmas. Then when I finished school, I did not know what I wanted to do, so I started training as a housekeeper. This is where I discovered my passion for baking.
During my home economics training, I had already started to teach myself how to bake, partly through YouTube, books and then after I did an internship in a small patisserie called Café Huttenhof. I realised that this is what I wanted to do for a living. After I graduated, I did an apprenticeship as a pastry chef in the Patisserie where I also did my work placement. There I learnt the "German patisserie" but also how to make wedding cakes and birthday cakes of all kinds. My creativity and perfectionism to always deliver the best helped me a lot.
After I finished my training as a pastry chef, I decided to do an internship in the UK with the help of Erasmus+. I was in London for 2.5 months where I worked in a small patisserie called Maison Bertraux and then for 4 months in Brighton where I worked at Sugardough. As this was all during Corona I decided to stay in England and started working at Real Patisserie where I learnt about French patisserie.
A close friend and colleague showed me the job advert for Pennyhill Park and said I could really do it and encouraged me to apply. A few weeks later I got the job as a commis chef in the patisserie. There I learnt about the finer art of patisserie. I had learnt a lot of different things before, but this was the first time I had seen afternoon tea cakes and how complex the production process can be. I learnt how to temper/process chocolate correctly. And then I had the opportunity to make my first small chocolate showpiece: an Easter egg. That is when my interest in chocolate was awakened and I wanted to learn more and more about it.

What or who is your greatest source of inspiration?

There are a lot of things that inspire me. For example, it could be a well-stocked supermarket, a conversation with a friend or baking books that I flick through from time to time and get inspired by designs and recipes. But of course, social media like Instagram and Pinterest are also incredibly inspiring these days.

What has been your favourite culinary creation so far?

There are a few, for example last December we transformed the entrance to the bar and our restaurant into a Gingerbread house in a night-time/early morning Project. It took a lot of preparation time and teamwork, but the result was simply beautiful. Then my chocolate room amenities from last December which I created and designed on my own. It was made from six layers of chocolate with toppings and then stacked in different sizes it to a shape of a tree. The toppings \ layers consisted of:
64% extra bitter by Cacao Barry, topped off with freezer dried berries
Callebaut Gold chocolate with dehydrated apple and toasted walnuts
41% Alunga by cocoa Barry with orange essence and candied almonds

What motivated you to enter the Junior Chocolate Masters competition?

Since I started working at Pennyhill Park, I have watched two of my colleagues compete in competitions. I had always told myself that I did not want to do something like that because my two-day final exam would have been stressful enough. But I got curious about how I would do in a competition. I spoke with my Executive Chef Sarah Frankland about it and she suggested the Junior Chocolate masters. So I decided to apply. I want to learn new things, test myself and see how far can go. It is a big challenge as it
also is my very first competition. I do also hope to achieve some more knowledge about chocolate, learn some new skills and meet some new people within the industry.