The 'MasterChef' finalist from Garrocha who wants to keep the legacy of seven generations of pastry chefs alive.

GironaAnna Callís Galceran (Olot, 1993) is one of the four finalists of the thirteenth edition of MasterChef, the popular RTVE cooking competition that has the chef Jordi Cruz, from ABaC in Barcelona, as one of the three members of the jury. The young Garrochina native's flair for the kitchen, combined with a natural gift for leadership and a great ability to adapt to adverse situations, key in a program of this nature, has taken her to the final phase of the competition. Next Monday we will find out if she is the winner.

For Callís, the experience of MasterChef It has been the latest adventure in a personal and professional life filled with adventures, stays abroad, and constant twists and turns. The daughter of the owners of the Callís bakery in Olot, in recent years she has worked as an actress, journalist, event planner, and public relations professional in the fields of fashion, design, and sports. With more than 35,000 followers on Instagram, she began to gain a reputation on social media, almost without realizing it, in the summer of 2024 in Llafranc, posting videos in which she gave life advice in a mix of Catalan, Spanish, and English, as entertaining as it was disconcerting, which made her fortune. From then on, months later, she received the call from the RTVE competition to apply for the castings for this year's edition, and after many weeks of passing tests among thousands of applicants, she was chosen as one of the sixteen contestants.

"When you're in there, you have to let yourself go. You have to be very flexible, adapt a lot. There are people who know how to cook a lot, but then they test you with only two ingredients, and if you only know how to follow recipes, it destroys you. It's a talent, not one reality, "So you have to know how to play your cards right," says Callís. And that mentality is what has allowed her to get so far: "It's okay if Jordi Cruz gives you a bad review of a dish. The world isn't ending. He gives you advice, a clue, and that's it. You have to always have a positive attitude and not get upset," she acknowledges.

The program is recorded on delay and the contestants live isolated in a house, where they pass the tests and receive cooking classes every week, without a mobile phone or connection to the outside world. "This has been an incredible experience. We had very limited contact with our family members, and we also couldn't have any news from outside so as not to be contaminated. For me, this was hyper-stimulating and very healthy, like going back to my childhood and going on summer camps," she explains. And, regarding her characteristic attitude and way of speaking, she adds: "I'm like that, it's supernatural. With my sister, who lived in London, we always speak in a mix of English, and with my friends the same because they piss themselves laughing. I am just like that, 0 character."

Future eighth generation of Callís pastry chefs

Isolated in the MasterChef residence, meritoriously overcoming the verdicts of Jordi Cruz and company, Callís has had time to rethink the future and reconnect with a legacy she carried within, hidden, waiting for an opportunity like this to emerge. The Callís bakery, in the heart of Olot's historic center, is one of the city's most select and typical bakeries, famous for its traditional pastries and chocolates and assortments of chocolate creations, with raspberries, pralines, or nuts. It's an ideal place to stop and buy a dessert to impress. The business, founded in 1816, has been in business for over 200 years, with seven generations of the family at its helm. And, after appearing on the program, Anna Callís has realized that she wants to be the eighth: "In there I thought a lot about my father, Manel Callís. I've always been very transgressive: I've done sports, journalism, theater, art, fashion... but in the end you see that at home you have a legacy that you haven't valued enough." And she adds: "It's a working, quality artisanal business, but my father's generation is coming to an end. And I realized that I can continue it. If I hadn't gone to MasterChef"Perhaps I would have realized it too late."

Innovation without losing roots

His will is to continue the family tradition, but, based on all his experience around the world and with the modern perspective of the new generations, he also aspires to contribute ideas to the business: "I am very interested in exploring the world of ice cream and also making cakes with less sugar, healthier ones, like Jordi Bordas does. I would like to introduce more individual trends, like cake Dubai chocolate, which is very fashionable now, but without breaking with our essence".

Before the competition, Callís had worked in an interior design studio in Antwerp, in the sports department at TV3, had studied fashion in Milan, had worked at the Godó tennis tournament in Barcelona, ​​​​at the Copa América... And all this experience, of some art within pastry making, allows us to export some specific products such as cakes with natural floral arrangements by special orders", she predicts. The pastry shop already has a presence in Barcelona and Madrid, but Callís's ambition is to be able to expand its borders with some specific products and partner with some hotels.

However, first, they must train and inherit the knowledge from their father, who has all the accounts, recipes, and inventories in his head. Callís intends to learn this firsthand this summer and, then, take a specific pastry course at the Hofmann School in Barcelona, ​​at the Atelier, or with Jordi Bordas. In the meantime, he's also looking for an expert pastry chef to partner with. All while keeping one foot in Olot and the other in Barcelona, ​​with the goal of harmonizing all their facets as they move toward a common future.