Wu Pao-chun (吳寶春), the Taiwanese baker who did Taiwan proud by winning the title of Bakery Master in the bread category of this year’s Bakery World Cup in Paris on Wednesday, said yesterday he would work to “keep Taiwan’s name shining.”
“I’ll work with the National Kaohsiung Hospitality College to create courses to train the next Bakery Masters,” he said. “I don’t want to be the only person with this honor in Taiwan. I want the world to know that bakers from Taiwan are capable of winning this title every year.”
Wu made the remarks at a press conference in Taipei yesterday after his return from France on Friday night.
“The first thing I had in mind when they announced that I was the winner was to tell my mother, who is in heaven: ‘I did not let you down,’” the 39-year-old said.
Wu said that when he felt stressed and nervous before and during the competition, he thought of his mother, and believed that she would give him strength.
Wu considers his mother the most important person in his life because she raised him, his brothers and sisters by herself after his father passed away when he was 12.
“I learned a lot from my mother. No matter how hard life was, she always worked and never gave up,” said Wu, a Pingtung native. “She was illiterate, and didn’t have many dreams. Her only wish was that all her children could grow up and achieve something.”
In fact, Wu’s family was so poor, he had to stop going to school after graduating from junior high.
But he did not give up.
“I actually never thought about becoming a baker. I just wanted to learn a skill to feed myself and my family. Baking was just something I happened to come across,” he said. “I was only 17 and was too young to think about the future.”
Following the example of his mother, Wu worked hard.
He paid attention to every detail and tried to learn as much about every ingredient as possible — an attitude that helped him to succeed.
“One of the tests at the competition was to randomly pick some materials and make bread out of whatever you got. I got olives and olive oil — both are ingredients I wasn’t familiar with,” he said. “But since I have the habit of reading about all ingredients, I was able to make bread with those items, and it actually tasted good.”
Finally, Wu defeated 23 other rivals from 17 countries to win the title Bakery Master.
Although the first Bakery World Cup took place in 1992, this is the first year a separate competition for individual bakers has been held.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS