The best butter croissant in Spain is made (for the fourth time) by the Canal bakery in Barcelona

BarcelonaThe best artisan butter croissant in Spain is made by the Canal bakery on Calvet Street in Barcelona. This was decided by the jury of the Best Croissant in Spain competition, organized by the Barcelona Pastry Guild. The winning baker, Toni Vera isn't the first time she's won the competition; this year marks her fourth. She managed to become the best in 2016, 2019, and 2022.

The winning croissant is straight, as is typical of all-butter croissants; the interior is highly spongy and raised, creamy white, and the exterior is crisp and an appealingly toasted color. There's a reason why an elongated croissant without horns always wins: bakers believe this is the way to achieve perfect dough, which is why they always opt for this shape. Otherwise, with horns, they believe it's impossible to achieve uniform quality, because the horns have a different texture than the rest.

Croissants, before 11 am

To win, the pastry chef had to comply with the competition's regulations, which stipulate that the croissants had to be presented this Tuesday before 11 a.m. at the Barcelona Pastry Guild, the competition headquarters, where the jury met. If any of the contestants or even a member of the jury shows up after 11 a.m., they are no longer eligible to participate. "We are very strict with the time because we know that freshly made croissants are better. In fact, among the winning croissants from other editions, there are some that the competing pastry chefs had brought to the competition three or four minutes before 11 a.m.," says Olivier Fernández, manager of the Guild. This fact could explain why some pastry chefs with workshops near the Guild have won several editions, as is the case with Brunells Pastry Shop, on Princesa Street, which was last year's winner and who had also won the 2020 edition.

However, the Guild manager explains that for the competition, pastry chefs seek out alliances among themselves, and often those from towns outside of Barcelona prepare the croissants in the competition at nearby bakeries owned by friends. "I would say that the competition fosters this teamwork among pastry chefs, who leave counters and ovens for fellow professionals; every year we see how alliances are formed among each other, and therefore many of those who enter end up preparing their croissants near the Guild headquarters," continues the manager of the competition, the best croissant in the country.

The winner takes a check for a thousand euros, and the organizers assure that often the pastry chefs don't even come to collect it"The award gives visibility and prestige to the bakery, which not only starts selling more croissants but also all the pastries in general that it prepares daily," says Olivier Fernández. In other words, for the winner, the real prize is the daily flood of customers they will serve at the bakery just hours after the competition ends. And so on for months afterward. In this sense, pastry chef Andreu Sayó, of the Brunells bakery, says that since they won, they've gone from making 4,000 croissants a week to 7,000. "And we've remained that way throughout the year," he asserts. In fact, "we began to notice the change in demand the week of the competition, when we went from 500 croissants a week to 4,000," continues the pastry chef, who this year was unable to compete but had to be a member of the jury, as required by the competition's regulations.

The Barcelona Pastry Guild has been organizing this competition for the best croissant in Spain for eighteen years, and in a way, it has managed to generate more buzz than ever, to the point that one could say that Catalan pastry chefs, and those in Spain in general, are taking on the croissants of Paris. However, in the French capital, this sweet treat is ostentatiously priced lower than those sold in Barcelona. Many of Paris' pastry shops sell croissants for between €1.20 and €1.50, even those that have won awards, as is the case with the Utopia pastry shop in Paris.

In this year's edition, nearly sixty pastry chefs participated in the competition, which represents an increase compared to last year.