The Tornés pastry shop in Girona has just won the competition for the best candy in the world

The Tornés pastry shop in Girona (51 Migdia Street) has just won the competition for the best sweet in the world, held in Girona's Lleó market square. Master pastry chef Josep Maria Tornés is co-author of the Girona sweet's ten commandments, written in 1991, and states that the recipe he follows is similar to the one written by pastry chef Puig (the sweet's creator) a hundred years ago. "I've changed the percentages of sugars and fats especially," says the pastry chef, who assures that the sweet he now makes has been updated to be more appealing.

The chucho from the Tornés pastry shop is too flaky and fermented, important steps to distinguish them from other bakeries that make them from bun dough: "when we say Girona dog "We're referring to certain requirements, which means a lot of puff pastry, fermented and straight, and, furthermore, there has to be a balance between the amount of cream and the pastry, so that when you bite into it, the cream doesn't all spill out the sides," Tornés explains. She also flavors the cream with lemon zest and a sugarcane pod.

Every day, Josep Maria Tornés makes between 80 and 100 chuchos; on weekends, depending on orders, that number doubles. "We've noticed that on weekends people from Barcelona come to Girona to their second homes and place orders," he explained, adding that from now on he doesn't know "what will happen because everyone has scared me about the work that's coming my way; I'm ready to pack my bags and leave," the pastry chef remarked. His chuchos cost 3.50 euros. "And I'm not going to raise the price because of the prize," he says.

Meanwhile, in Santa Coloma de Farners, the winning pastry chef in the last edition, Joaquil TriasTrias, who served as a judge in this year's competition, explains that he has sold approximately 40,000 chuchos (a type of Mexican candy) in a year. He started making them in 2024, "more for the love of it than anything else," and from 2024 to 2025 he sold around 400 chuchos. When he was declared the winner of the world candy competition on March 22nd of last year, he noticed the increase in demand from the very first days. "We set a target because we couldn't keep up, so we made 200 during the week and 400 on weekends," says Trias, who assures that if they had been able to make many more, they would have sold them all. "Instead of 40,000 chuchos in a year, we would surely be talking about 60,000 or 80,000," says the baker from Trias Pastry Shop.

Sweets at 2.60 euros

He also changed the price this year. He started selling them for €1.90, but "everyone told me they were too cheap," so he first set the price at €2.20 and finally at €2.60, which is the price he sells them for today. "Right now, with a new winner, I don't know what will happen: maybe I'll still have a steady stream of customers, or maybe not; it's just a question." The fact is, in the first few months after winning the prize, the pastry chef is now making fifty chuchos a day, and between 80 and 100 on weekends.

The winning pastry chef from the 2025 edition prepares the treat with croissant dough, which he rolls out, and then places the pastry cream inside. He then shapes it like a cannelloni and fries it; that is, the pastry cream also fries because it's already inside the dough. "It's the way we do it, and I know that the purists don't consider adding the pastry cream at the very end, when the dough is fried, to be a real treat," says the pastry chef from Santa Coloma de Farners, who explains that until last spring, the flagship product was the ratafia cake, and now... "Because the competition also means that all the other products we make sell more," he says.

This is the power of the World Candy Contest, now in its sixth year, invented by broadcaster Salvador Garcia-Arboç to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the candy's invention at the Puig pastry shop on Carrer de la Corte Real in Girona (now defunct). This year, the contest included a broader program of activities beyond the competition itself. Throughout the morning, while the jury deliberated, the "Mercado del Xuixo" (Candy Market) was open, where the five winning candies from previous years were on sale: Padrés Pastry Shop from Banyoles; Pan Artesano del Vallés; Triunfo Pastry Shop from Barcelona; Juhé Pastry Shop from L'Escala; and Trias from Santa Coloma de Farners. The winner was also announced. honorary trucher, which has been picked up by the journalist Jordi Basté, who every morning says the phrase: "who will choke on a dog with the morning news?".