A baker from the South-West who makes the best pain au chocolat in the world?
This is news that may please supporters of the “chocolate” name.
Frenchman Dimitri Bordon won the “Chocolate/Pain au chocolat World Cup” on Sunday, organized near Toulouse, against around twenty competitors from twelve different countries.
“It’s a huge honor,” he said after receiving his award.
“Especially when we see the candidates, the products that have come out, the jury, it’s scary!
»
The 29-year-old from Gers, who works in a bakery in Cugnaux, a suburb of Toulouse, was chosen by a jury of 18 professionals from the catering industry.
He narrowly won ahead of his compatriot Tom Jean, who came second, by offering, in particular, as a revisited pastries - one of the two competition tests - a chocolate bread with Sichuan pepper in the shape of a windmill, decorated with tangerine jelly, bitter orange and yuzu juice.
The Italian Mirko Zenatti completes the podium and wins the special prize from a second jury, this time composed of individuals.
20 candidates and hundreds of curious people
Twenty candidates from twelve different countries, including Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, Canada, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Vietnam, competed in this second edition of the test.
France had four representatives, just like Morocco, when Cameroon fielded two candidates.
Read also Voted best pain au chocolat in France, the secrets of its preparation in Anjou
The name of this competition, “Chocolate/Pain au chocolat” World Cup, illustrates the rivalry in France between these two names, chocolatine being mainly used in the South-West, such as at the Toulouse exhibition center (MEETT), where the test took place.
VIDEO.
Should we say chocolatine or pain au chocolat?
The question that divides France
Under the eye of more than a hundred curious people, the twenty competitors had to make 24 of these pastries, including 12 classics and 12 revisited, all of a precise weight (between 70 and 90 grams) and using the same ingredients (butter, chocolate).
They were evaluated according to criteria of cooking, regularity, quality of the puff pastry, taste and texture.
Clementine and dragon fruit
Guy Orsini, a 29-year-old candidate from Corsica, chose to take inspiration from the clementines of his childhood to offer a revisited version with 70% guanaja chocolate and candied clementine cream, in the shape of a bow tie.
Thuy Vien, 35, born in France but who on Sunday represented the country where she grew up, Vietnam, married dragon fruit and calamansi (a citrus fruit), in a chocolatine that looks like a flower .