Barcelona bakery Canal wins Spain's Best Croissant Award for the fourth time

Barcelona bakery Canals won Spain's Best Croissant Award for the fourth time.

Chef Toni Vera, from the bakery founded in 1967, received the prize at a ceremony held in Barcelona on Tuesday.

Over sixty bakeries from across Spain took part in the event on the 18th edition of the prestigious competition.

"We made the same croissant we bake every day in our shop, using top-quality ingredients and a slow, careful process," Vera explained.

The chef said it took them 48 hours to make the winning croissant. Initially, he baked around 80 croissants, from which he then selected the 12 he presented to the jury.

"I arrived here nine minutes before the deadline on my motorbike, nervous and rushing," he said. 

Vera added that he would like the competition to be held outside Barcelona, as Catalan bakeries have dominated in recent years, partly due to their proximity to the event's venue.

"More and more people from other regions are taking part," he said. "I’ve even had bakers from places like Tenerife and Madrid come to our bakery to prepare their croissants. But not this time, I had to tell them no, because I wanted to win," he laughed.

The judging process began on Tuesday morning at the headquarters of the Barcelona Pastry Guild.

From the early hours of the day, all contestants began bringing their croissants to the guild, with a submission deadline of 11am.

Each participant was required to present 12 artisanal butter croissants: plain, without any fillings or decorations.

The jury this year includes renowned figures such as Andrey Sayó, from Barcelona’s Brunells bakery and last year’s winner, who has taken the title twice.

Oriol Castro, from Disfrutar restaurant, currently ranked the best in the world, and Jon García, from Jon Cake, are also among the distinguished chefs on the panel.

The judging process begins with a visual inspection. All croissants are divided into batches of 12 and assigned a number, so the jury does not know which bakery submitted them.

The judges first assess whether the shape of each croissant meets the required standard. Those that are misshapen or poorly formed are immediately disqualified.

From the remaining croissants, the judges move on to the tasting stage, the longest and most decisive part of the evaluation.

Each croissant is scored out of 100 points, with 40 points allocated to flavor, which the judges carefully determine.

Other aspects under evaluation include color, alveolation (the internal honeycomb structure of the crumb), lamination (the layering of the dough and butter), shape, and finish.

Each of these categories is worth between 10 and 15 points, contributing to the final score.