Barcelona’s Suca'l bakes World’s Best Panettone

The Suca'l bakery in Barcelona won the World's Best Panettone over the weekend at an event held in Milan, Italy.

The jury voted Tonatiuh Cortés' product as the best globally, bringing Panaderia Suca'l, previously known as Cloudstreet Bakery, to a whole new level.

"We are all in shock... it's incredible," Cortés said. "During the competition, we got some very good opinions about the panettone, so we had very good feelings, but not enough to ever believe this was possible."

The competition has strict guidelines requiring all ingredients - including flour, butter, and fruit - to be sourced from Italy. However, the competition does provide participants with all the necessary ingredients to create the traditional bread.

Spain's Best Panettone

Spain's annual 'Best Artisan Panettone Competition' saw two other Barcelona bakers win out of the 70 contestants in a separate event last week. Toni Vera from the Canal pastry shop in Barcelona won Best Classic Panettone in Spain. This bakery is known for several Pastry Guild's awards, such as winning the Best Croissant in Spain award on different occasions. Meanwhile, Felipe de Santa Cruz of Madeleine by Ferrieres' Parisian pastry shop, won the Best Chocolate Panettone. 

Cruz emphasizes the bakery's 100% natural panettones, each going through a 30 hour fermentation process; however, he, as well as Vera, had to balance the artisanal approach with the stringent requirements of the competition such as a 40% minimum cocoa content for the chocolate panettones, and specific weight ranges for the sugar glaze and final panettone. 

Although similar, Spain's competition takes a different approach to the panettone, such as permitting the use of the tonka bean or milk chocolate. Both competitions evaluate several factors, such as the taste, smell, color, presentation, and structure of the crumb or its shape.

For the upcoming Christmas season, Cortés anticipates a higher demand for their award-winning panettones.

"Before, it was really hard to get many clients because we had a very small bakery, a small oven, and very small production," Cortés said. "Now, we are able to sell a lot more, but the world championship is completely different from the Spain one, so we really have no idea what that holds."