Dear Friends of World Pastry Cup Team USA 2009,

We wish you all a Happy New Year and great success throughout 2009.

It has been a long year of preparation and anticipation. Right after Christmas, we had a final practice and packed our crates (1 ton!) for Lyon. We received word today that our crates arrived in Paris safely and are on schedule to be received in Lyon tomorrow. Sylvain and En-Ming will arrive on Friday, just in time to inspect the cargo and make sure all is well. Flawless transportation of the equipment and supplies is one of the most important steps in our process. If all goes well, we will have started off in great shape.

David, Roy, Remy and Jim arrive on Saturday. They will spend the weekend unpacking and organizing their equipment. The rest of the week will be spent setting up for the day of the competition. Remy will test all the recipes with the local ingredients while David and Roy practice on the chocolate, sugar, and ice pieces for the buffet. This is their opportunity to adapt to the local conditions – particularly the electricity, which is always a challenge. Let’s not forget about the weather – we hear it is freezing cold and rainy! David is already anticipating sticky sugar. Team USA will compete on the first day of the two-day event, so they have until Friday to complete the preparations. The competition is January 25 – 26.

Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie 2009 marks the 20th Anniversary of this special competition. In honor of the anniversary, an opening ceremony and reception will be held on Saturday, January 24, with all the past winning teams present. We look forward to having our friends Ewald Notter and Michel Willaume with us. Ewald, Michel, and En-Ming were the winning team of 2001.

As we progress through the week leading up to the competition, we will keep in touch and let you know how we are doing through our website www.worldpastrycupusa.org. Of course, we will let you know how we did after we compete, and the final results the following day.

We would like to thank all of you for your well wishes and support throughout this year. We are very touched by your encouragement. For those of you who will be in Lyon, we will sneak a peek and look for you in the stands. For those who are unable to attend, we will have pictures and stories (funny ones!). You will feel as though you were there.

Best wishes,

Team USA