After competing in the Phoenix, Arizona heat, Team Wressell took home the first prize at the 2011 Amoretti National Pastry Team Championship on Saturday, July 9th. The mostly Chicago-based team trained at The French Pastry School of Kennedy-King College over the past year and will go on to represent the United States at the World Pastry Team Championship in 2012. The All-American team was led by Los Angeles Pastry Chef, Donald Wressell, and consisted of Chicago's own Scott Green, Joshua Johnson and, alternate, Della Gossett; they were supported by an elite set of sponsors and coaches that reinforced the team's European training. The team will make history by becoming the first group of all American-born pastry chefs to represent the United States at this world-renowned competition.

An impressive cross-section of US pastry talent was on display at the National Competition where teams were asked to produce an array of sweet creations inspired by this year's theme: "your favorite book." Team Wressell's muse was the children's book, The Rainforest Grew All Around , by Susan K. Mitchell and illustrated by Connie McLennan; the chefs reflected the book's rich images and dynamic story in their showpieces and in the bright flavors of their degustation. Chef Green, known for his stunning sugar showpieces and airbrushing talent, poured his energy into a snarling sugar leopard while Chef Johnson, whose specialty is in all things chocolate, constructed a fierce alligator piece by piece after having engineered its green chocolate scales to the millimeter.