William Leaman, head pastry chef at The Essential Baking Co., just gave new meaning to the term "breadwinner." The captain of the Bread Bakers Guild "Team USA 2005" was among a trio of American bakers who took the gold in Paris yesterday at the Coupe du Monde de Boulangerie, the World Cup of Baking.

The U.S. team consisted of Leaman, Jory Downer of Evanston, Ill., and Jeffrey Yankellow of San Francisco. They competed against 11 other international teams with France taking second and Japan third. Team USA last won the event in 1999 and took second place in the competition in 2002.

The International Association of Culinary Professionals granted its 2005 Award of Excellence last week to Jerilyn Brusseau for her humanitarian efforts as co-founder of PeaceTrees Vietnam.

Brusseau is known in local culinary circles as the baker who helped develop the recipe that would launch Cinnabon, and for her namesake bakery and cafe in Edmonds. That local institution was sold in 1993 but bore Brusseau's name until it closed last year.

PeaceTrees, fostering cross-cultural friendship and healing in Vietnam, is where the Bainbridge Island-based culinary consultant directs much of her energies today. Brusseau and her late husband, Danaan Parry, founded the nonprofit organization (www.peacetreesvietnam.org) in 1995. Thanks to her continued stewardship and a growing network of PeaceTrees volunteers, 1,400 unexploded land mines and bombs have been cleared in Vietnam's Quang Tri Province and pepper trees planted in their place; homes have been provided for 100 families on a former battlefield; and 10,000 children have benefited from PeaceTrees' land-mine and bomb accident-prevention programs.

Seattle Times staff