ROC van Twente student Serena van Breukelen in top 10 Pastry chefs of the world

Confectionery, chocolate and marzipan were the main items on the competition floor. On day 1, all participants got to work making marzipan figures, a sugar display and a cake with chocolate decoration. Day 2 was all about chocolate: participants made chocolates and a showpiece about a metre high. "Serena was working full of energy, very convincing and decisive" said Bianca Miltenburg, her guiding teacher from ROC van Twente. Cees Bakker, the WorldSkills Netherlands expert linked to Serena was also full of praise for her work: "Serena had a plan and the drive to realise it". Serena is creative and knows what she wants. All assignments had to meet various quality requirements and be made within a certain time.

Last March, Serena became Dutch Champion Pastry Chef at Skills The Finals. In July, she obtained her diploma in Patisserie at ROC van Twente. She has enjoyed working at Chocolade Bezorgd in Hoogeveen for the past two years. For this World Cup, she trained non-stop for about three to four days a week. She puts all her free time into getting even better and better. This MBO graduate is certainly ambitious. Next year, Serena wants to compete in the Gouden Gard, an annual professional competition for talented young pastry chefs. And after that, she hopes to compete in the Dutch Pastry Award. This is THE patisserie competition in the Netherlands and also the highest attainable competition in the field of patisserie. All this in preparation for her future top job.

During the national finals in March 2022, Serena already won a gold plaque at Skills The Finals, the Dutch Championship for vocational mbo competitions. Her exceptionally high score earned her a place in Team Netherlands of WorldSkills Netherlands. This international WorldSkills competition in Lucerne (Switzerland) was organised by WorldSkills Netherlands together with a number of European partners as a special edition and alternative to the WorldSkills in Shanghai (China), which was cancelled by covid-19.