![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/podium-300x200.jpg\")
Kilgannon standing on the WorldSkills podium. (Unknown)<\/p><\/div>\n
W<\/span>inning has never felt sweeter for Emma Kilgannon, a Humber graduate who recently won bronze in the WorldSkills 2022 Special Edition competition in the<\/span> patisserie and confectionery<\/span> category.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kilgannon was the first representative from Canada to make the podium in her category at the WorldSkills competition ever.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n WorldSkills Competitions organizes global skills championships every two years in different countries. According to WorldSkills, their competitions are \u201cthe gold standard of skills excellence\u201d and feature different skills such as robotics, hair dressing, and automobile technology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kilgannon travelled to Lucerne, Switzerland, and competed against students from France, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Austria. She went head-to-head against 15 of the top junior bakers in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n She travelled to the competition with her former professor and mentor, Kenneth Ku.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ku is a WorldSkills coach and currently works as the <\/span>baking and pastry arts management professor <\/span>at Humber College.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The competition was a two-day event that took place in early October. Each day was seven hours of baking.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kilgannon was nervous in the beginning of the competition but she says her feelings quickly changed when it got underway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe second that timer goes off, all the nerves go away,\u201d <\/span>Kilgannon <\/span>says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Each baker had to produce two marzipan figurines, two entremets (a layer cake), 100 centimetre-tall chocolate showpiece, a sugar stand, and 14 chocolate bonbons.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Competitors had to create their pieces based on the chosen circus theme of this year\u2019s competition and <\/span>finish their pieces by the allotted deadline.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ku says judges mark competitors based on<\/span> cleanliness, organization, creativity and \u201cthe most important thing is you have to finish on time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kilgannon <\/span>designed two circus monkeys for her marzipan figurines, a carousel for her sugar stand and a circus elephant with dancing acrobats for her chocolate showpiece.<\/span><\/p>\n Emma and her chocolate showpiece. (Unknown)<\/p><\/div>\n The competition was going well for Kilgannon until the final hours it took an unexpected turn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy sugar stand actually broke\u2026 I tried fixing it but [the pieces] wouldn’t adhere together because it was so humid.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kilgannon <\/span>explains she had a problem with the humidity in Switzerland. The humidity makes working with sugar difficult because the moisture in the air makes the sugar extra sticky and causes gloves to stick to the sugar, according to <\/span>Kilgannon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The humidity caused <\/span>Kilgannon\u2019s <\/span>fingers to stick to her sugar piece and made it difficult to place the broken sugar pieces back together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kilgannon <\/span>says\u00a0 \u201cyou have to think on your feet and improvise and try to make it as best as you can.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She says her training prepared her for mishaps like these.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sergio Shidomi, another mentor of <\/span>Kilgannon and a former Humber College professor<\/span>, prepared <\/span>Kilgannon <\/span>for the competition by creating and working through mistakes during her training.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou have the plan, plan A, plan B, plan C,\u201d says Shidomi. He says bakers need to know how to fix their mistakes in the moment and most importantly to stay calm, something he calls \u201cswitching.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The \u201cswitch\u201d happens when a baker shuts off their anxiety and panic and refocuses themselves on the situation with calm emotions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shidomi says \u201cto be calm is an art, you have to be able to control yourself. Because if your head is not in the right place, nothing works.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kilgannon <\/span>was able to troubleshoot, redesign her piece and finish before her deadline.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n She was surrounded by friends and family when <\/span>she <\/span>heard her name announced for third place. <\/span>Kilgannon <\/span>says she was very emotional when she walked onto the podium.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI honestly didn’t think that I would have placed,\u201d says <\/span>Kilgannon<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, Kilgannon\u2019s mentors were less surprised that she scored a spot on the podium.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mentor Sergio knew Kilgannon could \u201cbe a winner\u201d and says, \u201cyou believe in someone for so long\u2026 So I’m very proud.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kilgannon celebrated her win with her family in Switzerland and at home in Milton. She even went out for a celebratory dinner with her mentors Shidomi and Stefanie Francavilla, who is a former baking and pastry management alumni from Humber.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n KIlgannon plans to take a long and rewarding break after her huge accomplishment at the WorldSkills competition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Her next steps are to look for jobs in the industry, potentially in the hotel business and she says she hopes to compete in more competitions in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kilgannon\u2019s journey may be solo but knows she will be supported by her family, friends and mentors like Shidomi.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>I am always going to be on her path,\u201d<\/span>Shidomi says.<\/span> \u201c<\/span>Kilgannon is like family.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Winning has never felt sweeter for Emma Kilgannon, a Humber graduate who recently won bronze in the WorldSkills 2022 Special Edition competition in the patisserie and confectionery category. Kilgannon was the first representative from Canada to make the podium in her category at the WorldSkills competition ever.\u00a0\u00a0 WorldSkills Competitions organizes global […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":18285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18283"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18289,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18283\/revisions\/18289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/emma-225x300.jpg\")