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.
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS