Columnist Muriel Stevens: Team Maury takes Hollywood by storm

Friday, July 13, 2001 | 9:19 a.m.

Muriel Stevens' dining columns appear Friday. Her shopping and travel columns appear Wednesday. Reach her at 259-4080 or muriel@lasvegassun.com

How sweet it was when Team Maury took the gold medal and $50,000 purse at the third annual National Pastry Team Championship at Beaver Creek, Colo., in June.

Working against the clock (12 hours over a two-day period), the altitude and 11 other three-member groups, team captain Jean-Philippe Maury (executive pastry chef at Bellagio), Jean-Claude Canestrier (Paris Las Vegas) and Laurent Branlard (Ritz Carlton Buckhead, Atlanta) dazzled the judges with their creative interpretations of the championship's Hollywood theme. Maury chose his own teammates.

Team Maury will next year represent the United States at the first World Pastry Team Championship in Beaver Creek in 2002. Said Maury, "In a few years this will be the largest pastry competition in the world."

Each team had to produce a cake, petit fours, a frozen cake, plated dessert, bon bons and themed pieces. There's no question that the Marilyn Monroe sugar piece and the Charlie Chaplin showpiece earned Team Maury the coveted first- place medal.

"The Marilyn Monroe sugar piece depicts the famous skirt blowing scene from the 1955 Billy Wilder comedy, 'The Seven Year Itch,' Chef Maury said. "The Charlie Chaplin showpiece illustrates Chaplin's dancing figure with a backdrop of a piano with dark- and white-chocolate keys," he added.

Leading the team of international judges was Jacques Torres, who for many years was the executive pastry chef at New York's famed Le Cirque restaurant.

This "most talked about pastry event in the world" is the brainchild of Norman Love, former executive pastry chef of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and Michael Schneider, editor-in-chief of Chocolatier and Pastry Art and Design magazines. The two-day event was sponsored by KitchenAid.

More about the national: A second Las Vegas team, Team Hui, led by Caesars Palace Executive Pastry Chef John Hui, was in the top 10, placing fifth. Team Hui included Hui, Christophe Ithurritze (corporate pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck's Fine Dining Restaurants) and Pastry Chef Randy Foster (Praml International).

Both Hui and Ithurritze spoke about the difficulties of working in such high altitude. Some of the chefs had headaches and others had problems with their chocolate pieces. Team Hui's sugar piece, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," included a photo of Audrey Hepburn in the famous black evening gown, diamond choker and with a cigarette holder, and Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in "Swingtime" movie mode. Their chocolate piece was a bit of Film Noir with a Humphrey Bogart silhouette and a chocolate film strip.

Hui will compete again in the 2003 event at Beaver Creek. To be eligible for the national team competition pastry chefs must have worked in the United State for at least two years. The international competition is open to the world's top pastry teams.

Border Grille recipes star in new movie: "Tortilla Soup," a Samuel Goldwyn film starring Hector Elizondo, Jacqueline Obradors, Elizabeth Pena, Tamara Mello, Nikolai Kinski and Paul Rodriguez, also stars the foods of Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. Food stylists have been used for other films, but this is the first to feature the cuisine of the acclaimed chef/founders of Ciudad (Latin American) and Border Grill restaurants.

Collaboration with Goldwyn began last summer when Milliken and Feniger read the script and consulted for the film's seven menus. They suggested what foods would best represent the characters and their conflicts. Alizondo plays a classically trained, traditional Mexican chef and father of Obradors, who likes the cooler Nuevo Latino style.

Milliken and Feniger taught Elizondo (Martin, the father) and Obradors (one of three daughters) how to look like pros. The chefs were on the set in Encino, Calif., an outdoor tent, on hot days, with only one tiny fan for air. Throughout the two weeks of filming the food scenes, they oversaw the cooking and styling. How well did they do? Check out the cooking scenes when the movie opens in August.

Zagat 2001-2002 in bookstores: Just out is the 2001-2002 Zagat Restaurant Guide. Tim Zagat, who with his wife Nina created the diners' survey, will be in Las Vegas on Tuesday for a press event. The peripatetic Zagat hasn't been here in years. Is he in for a surprise.