Josh Nickl always knew he would follow in his pastry chef father's footsteps, but not quite as closely as this.
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Nickl has just been awarded the gold medal in the Retail Baking Pastry category at the 2021 Worldskills Australia championship.
The award, achieved despite several COVID-related interruptions, comes almost 30 years after his father, Tracy, won the same event in 1993.
Reflecting on the journey, Nickl said it had thrown up plenty of challenges.
"It's been a long road, very challenging, but got there in the end," he told the Southern Highland News.
"Two years is a long time to be training for a competition. What we started training for was completely different to what I produced on Saturday and Sunday.
"Every time the competition changed the date the timeframe would change, kitchen spaces we were working in would change, two days to three days. I had just finished my 20th novelty cake and they say 'oh that's no longer in the competition.'
"That was a little bit heartbreaking."
Over the two-year journey he's produced, among others, a chocolate entremet, 12 lemon meringue and white chocolate hazelnut petit gateaux as well as the Gold Rush-themed showpiece.
While he knew he would always go into the family business, he was made to work for it by his mother.
"From a young age I was always in and around the kitchen, always helping out here on the weekends and before and after school," he explained.
"Throughout high school I went to multiple workplaces and did work experience in different bakery and pastry establishments across NSW and that's where I really fell in love with pastry.
"Mum was adamant during high school that if I wanted to do this I would have to go and work in some of the toughest kitchens in NSW.
"I worked in a bakery doing night shifts, starting at 8pm and finishing at 8am, in a hot bread bakery. I also worked in an all-French patisserie in Sydney where I was the only English speaker.
"That was pretty full on at age 15 but I came back from that having learnt lots."
So what advice does this pastry chef prodigy have for any future Worldskills entrants?
"Don't compete in a COVID year!" he said.
"It was a long two-year journey. Going into any competition you learn a lot about yourself.
"That's probably the thing that I'm most proud about, that I stuck to it when a lot of people were pulling out around me."
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