In the eighth edition of the Pastry Chef Revelation Award, seven pastry chefs presented their creations to a jury chaired by Jordi Butrón, pastry chef at Espai Sucre. After tasting and deliberating, the winner was Miguel Yeste, from the Obrar bakery in Madrid. ‘I brought a Christmas-inspired dessert made with panettone, vanilla and mandarin cream, crunchy almonds and almond and yuzu cream’, explains Yeste, 28. The story of this dessert began a couple of months ago with the Christmas orders he received at his shop on Calle Galileo, number nine.

He had to submit his proposal on January 7th to see if he would qualify as a finalist. ‘Panettone and roscón were the big sellers at that time of year. So, the bakery smelled of citrus fruits and toasted nuts, and I knew I had to include some of that’, recalls Yeste, referring to his prize-winning dessert sponsored by Torrons Vicens, which he named “Panettone, citrus fruits and almonds”.

For a month, Yeste and his team perfected the dessert. ‘We went back and forth a lot to get what we wanted. The first time was a disaster, but little by little we tried one thing and then another. Whenever we had a free moment, we would start experimenting’, says Yeste, a disciple of Paco Torreblanca and Albert Adrià. The young pastry chef has, however, had a successful career. He started at the age of 16, when he enrolled in cooking classes. ‘Then I moved on to pastry and worked in three Michelin-starred restaurants, until I opened my own pastry shop’. He has been a pastry chef and owner for a year and a half. ‘Very happy’.

Yeste's secret is not in the ingredients or their combination, he says. It's in himself. ‘I work very hard, I've worked hard to get where I am. Putting in long hours, not giving up, a lot of resilience and crying a lot, to be honest’. Is there a difference between working in a three-Michelin-star kitchen and running a workshop? ‘Yes, there is a difference, but the demands are still the same, because here I am, the public face’. Now, as is often the case with the winners of this award, he will see his orders and his fame multiply.