The Frankie 2018 Samoa Food and Wine Trade Expo ended with a mouthwatering baking competition yesterday.

There were three categories - bread, cake and pie - which different bakers competed for the favour of four judges.

Bread category was won by Myna’s Bakery, the cake category was scooped by All things Sweet and pie was taken by Frankie’s.

Director of Frankie’s Company Limited, Vitovaomanaia Mayday Cai said the event took them by surprise.

“Today’s (yesterday) event was much more than we expected. Some good feedback from everybody else, they have asked us to do this again but probably in the next two years. It is an event that needs a lot of time to prepare.

“We started planning last year when it was heading off to Christmas, it was then we started asking our suppliers about the vision and idea. The majority of them are so supportive. They said let us do this.

“So it was initially supposed to be in March, but then after the cyclone we had to put it back this month.”

She also explained the judging of the competition.

“When they did the registration and everything else, it has to be in a code format that the judges would not know who the bakers of the breads, cakes and pies were. We kept it as a secret.

“The Bagel New Zealand has been supplying a lot of bakery here in Samoa and we asked them if they wanted to sponsor to come and judge the event and they were willing to support as part of their sponsorship.

“There were two judges from Bagel, the other from A.P.T.C. and the other judge was Antonio. We wanted to be transparent, I think there were only two of my staff who knew who all the bakers were that entered the competition.”

To sum up the two-day event, for her it was a job well done.

“I was not aware that it was going to turn out this way. Might be small to us but these overseas and local suppliers, they think that this is a really good idea.

“Doing this has brought everyone together and some of them think that if we are going to do it, we would need a bigger venue.

“The whole purpose of this event is connecting suppliers to end users. This is basically for food services.  We want each and every one to bring their product forward and to experience a little more also about the goods that we are selling.”

There were 16 different suppliers from overseas and 20 locals who supply Frankie’s Company that were present at the trade expo.

“I think what we are going to do next time is that we are going to include America as well because we also import quite a lot from the U.S. So when we send out the invitations we wanted to do the other three countries first, to see how it would turn out

“This event is not only meant just for us, maybe in the future we would gather with everyone and make a big event for all of us.”

She acknowledged the support from all the local businesses.

“Thank you to everyone that has been supporting us, participating in this event. A big thank you to all the local suppliers that have been supplying us, such as Taula, Chan Mow and everyone that have been really supportive. It is really good to have all of us involved.”