Lluc Crusellas has spent All Saints’ Day on the road. He was returning from Paris, where this Monday he was proclaimed the best chocolatier in the world, with his team in a long entourage: a truck and two motorhomes. The journey has been less long than his preparation to enter the Olympus of pastry chefs. It has been two years of work for this young cocoa alchemist, only 26. “We have brought carts, utensils, machines, ingredients… everything,” he explains to NIUS Crusellas back to his land, which has dump with the participation of him. Crusellas has become the first Spaniard to crown the podium of the prestigious contest organized by Cacao Barry that was held at the Salon du Chocolat in Paris. Illustrious names such as Pol Deschepper, Naomi Mizuno, David Comaschi, Vincent Vallée or Elias Laderach have won in previous editions. The most striking image of the last edition has been the elephant with 170 kilos of chocolate that the Catalan designed for one of the tests. Among the public, the typical accent of the Osona region predominated. A region dedicated to the competition “Last week five people from the team arrived in Paris, but over the weekend 80 people arrived, including family and friends. The stands were my region. It was very exciting” recalls the confectioner born in Santa Eulàlia de Riuprimer and living in Vic. Crusellas has worked hard for the last two years: “I decided to apply when I was 24 years old. First I had to access the country’s pre-selection, I prepared myself for the competition in Spain and I won it. This last year I prepared Paris”, he recalls. He acknowledges that he still hasn’t quite believed the title: “We’ll be assimilating it and getting the most out of it. The important thing is that we’ve placed Catalan and Spanish patisserie where it belongs and with our project we’re trying to define what’s done here,” he explains. . The pastry chef tries to “innovate and do things different from those of a lifetime”, he explains. This is how it has been done with the El Carme pastry project, at the Pa Vic company: “In 2017 we decided to create a modern and trendy pastry line. We try to get closer to what is happening in the region, to any fair, we create special products to bring the business closer to people. We have products in motion, nothing is static”, he says. assistant at the Can Jubany restaurant, they put me in the pastry area and I liked what I saw”, he recalls. He studied at the Hoffman School in Barcelona and passed through the Pastisseria of Josep Maria Rodríguez, who was also chosen as the best pastry chef in the world in 2011 at the age of 26. Back then, he did not imagine that in less than a decade he would be in the Olympus of pastry. “I knew that I was weak in many areas, I was aware from the first moment because I know that I have little experience and I think that helped me to work hard to improve,” he explains about his recipe for success. Recent events have been difficult to digest: “It was a brutal feeling when the last winners came to take a picture with me. For me they are gods! And on Monday I was one of them at this time” he recalls. A precision tradeThe chocolatier He defines himself as a precise and polished professional: “Pastry is one of the most precise trades that exist and I try to transmit it in all my movements in the contest”, he explains. And he recognizes that although pastry and cooking go hand in hand, the kitchen does not attract him in his private life. Back in his homeland, his main challenge is “right now to dream because this will never happen again” he explains. and live the life that has been lost this last year: “Spending time with family, friends and cycling, my great hobby,” he explains. Regarding professional challenges, Crusellas assures that at the moment he does not plan to move from home: “All this It has to return to the people who have given me everything. Without the people of the store I would not be here and this will have a return. I am very much from Osona and now I have my feet here, “he says.