The five shop windows of the La Colmena pastry shop in Barcelona (Plaza del Ángel, 12) are decorated with chocolate 'monas', chicks, and feathers. There is one, the corner shop window, which is under construction, and has its blind down. When it is fixed, they will also decorate it with Easter 'monas'. In the past, assures Josep Maria Roig, the father of the current generation of La Colmena pastry chefs, there were queues of people to observe what they had put out, and the urban guard had to maintain order. "Now there are no longer godparents to give 'monas' to, nor do people go for strolls, and 'monas' are sold on supermarket shelves, at petrol stations," says Josep Maria with a twinkle in his eye, who is a great expert in sweet traditions, as demonstrated by the exhaustive library he has on pastry making. He knows so much that he is preparing a book, but we will explain that later; let's talk about the prize now. La Colmena has won the 'La Mejor Mona de Pascua' (The Best Easter 'Mona') competition, which this year has reached its fifth edition, and it is organized by the Sr y Sra Cake agency. Let's go look for it in the shop window that faces the door. There it is displayed as if it were welcoming us. It is a pirate parrot, with its eye patch, a hook, and in its claws it holds a small chocolate egg. "It's Jack Sparrow, the captain played by Johnny Depp in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean", explains Xavi Arévalo, head of the bakery and creator of the winning 'mona'. While he is sticking spheres and eggs together to prepare other 'monas', next to him Toni Roig, Josep Maria's son, is making meringues, which are very traditional at La Colmena, as well as candies of a thousand and one flavors, which they prepare just as they were made in the 17th century. Premium quality chocolate

We continue with the chocolate parrot. It weighs four kilos and they pick it up carefully with both hands. It measures about fifty centimeters, and it is already sold. I ask them the price, and first they tell me that the chocolate they use is of the highest quality, organic, and that the price they pay for it is high. If to this fact, you add the working days they have dedicated to it, which have been many, all together gives the price of 300 euros, which is what the winning mona costs. "I started preparing it in February, the skeleton, and then little by little," says Arévalo. The parrot has its structure made with six chocolate eggs, and the rest are hemispheres with which the parts of the body are composed. The head of the La Colmena workshop decided on a pirate parrot, because he thinks it is timeless, that the theme does not go out of style. "The same happens with the seabed and space, which are always liked." On the other hand, this year they know that the monas that the little ones ask for are those based on the series Stranger Things. "Even creatures who haven't seen the series ask for them, because they are very small." Be that as it may, the fact is that this week, at La Colmena, they stop making chocolate monas, they must have them all made by now, and they dedicate themselves to Cristinas, that is, sugar buns documented since the 15th century.

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Bread is practically a religion for the French. ParisAlmost the entire population lives within five minutes of a bakery (in French, the typical bakeriesAnd, morning or afternoon, it's easy to bump into neighbors walking home with at least one baguette under their arm. The vast majority of the city's bakeries are extraordinary, both those in the center and those on the outskirts, always with a tempting aroma and plenty of freshly baked bread and pastries. Many display awards in their shop windows, prizes received in various baking competitions over the years. One of the most popular competitions is the Best Baguette in Paris contest, organized by the City Hall, which in 2026 recognized Fournil Didot, a small, previously little-known bakery in the 14th arrondissement, away from the tourist bustle, behind Montparnasse towards the... suburbs From the south.

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It's a stately corner of Barcelona's Rambla de Catalunya. We're in Mauri Pastry Shop: a paradise of sweet and savory treats. If we look up at the ceiling, we see some original paintings. We find Amalthea, surrounded by cherubs, toppling the cornucopia from which fruit overflows. If we look ahead, we see that what once rained from the cornucopia has been transformed before our very eyes into a sea of tea biscuits, cakes, cristinas, diplomates, secalls, cream-filled rolls, croissants—here, they still sell more shortbread than butter—croquettes, and sandwiches—we could go on forever. "We have more than a thousand products," explains the manager, Marc Mauri. Everything is fresh, without additives or preservatives. "It's a little ocean liner in the middle of Barcelona," he says. I would say it's also a small work of art. Every day, Marc dedicates more than an hour to placing the order for what will need to be made the following day. A necessary document of great complexity. How many Three Kings' Day cakes should they produce, for example? To make these decisions, he uses data from previous years. But he also needs to consult the data from the year in which the same day of the week fell. Quite a puzzle, and to solve it, he draws on his past as an IT consultant. Marc is the fourth generation of Mauri. The shop was opened by his great-grandfather, Francesc Mauri. Then his grandfather, Francesc Mauri, continued the business, and later his father, Francesc Mauri, expanded it and left it in a state of grace for the current generation. It's worth mentioning that Marc has a brother 11 months older who goes by the name, of course, Francisco.

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The workshop of the Mervier Canal pastry shop on Calvet Street in Barcelona caught fire on Friday night, likely due to a problem with the electrical panel. It was 4:00 a.m. when a neighbor alerted the fire department after smelling smoke. "He was awake and noticed it immediately, the smell," says Lluís Estrada of the Canal pastry shop, adding that the tragedy came during the worst week and the worst month of the year.

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René Frank (1984, Wangen im Allgäu) is the dessert chef. Or the pastry chef of the kitchen. His Berlin restaurant Coda, with two Michelin stars, opened in 2016, and since then, accolades have poured in. Among others, he's been named the World's Best Pastry Chef by 50 Best and Best Pastry Chef by Best Chef. But now he's somewhat reluctant to have his establishment described as a "dessert restaurant." He's against rigid categories, and that's why, coming from a much more conservative region of Germany, he found his place in the world in Berlin.

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The traditional pastry shop Casa Otaegui will soon be 140 years old. It is one of the traditional places in San Sebastián where you must stop if you visit the capital of Gipuzkoa and try the cake that Emiliana Malcorra invented here as a result of the shortage of ingredients caused by the Civil War: the panchineta. In fact, the panchineta is the most beloved cake by the people of San Sebastián and has been reproduced by all the great Basque chefs, from Juan Mari Arzak to Pedro Subijana, including Karlos Arguiñano. The fact is that despite the fact that this cake made of puff pastry, almonds, and custard is the emblem of the city, all the tourists—in San Sebastián they are crowded—arrive in the city with the fixed idea of tasting what they believe to be the most traditional: the La Viña cheesecake.

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It was impossible to make a series of recommendations without stopping at L'Estrella pastry shop. For two reasons: on the one hand, because it's the oldest pastry shop in Barcelona and it's necessary to strengthen the heritage we have left in the form of small businesses and artisans. On the other hand, because it allowed us to bring you good news when the We eat He learned that this historic business's continued existence was guaranteed thanks to two young and determined women. You can read more about it in the article "Two young people revive Barcelona's oldest pastry shop.".

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The Pastry School of the Barcelona Guild celebrated the 50th anniversary of the birth of the teachings intended to pass on the trade to the children of its members at Barcelona's Borne Market. "For 20 years, only children could enroll in the school, but it was later extended to active, unionized workers, and later, scholarships were created," explains Saray Ruiz, director of the Pastry School. It's difficult to summarize fifty years, but the goals the school emphasizes are some of the most important. There are many more that we reviewed at the school with her and also with Olivier Fernández, manager of the Pastry School.

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Anna 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, have taken her to the final phase of the competition. Next Monday we will find out if she is the winner.

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It was 2013 when the cronut traveled around the world Although it was created in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood by pastry chef Dominique Ansel, that sweet treat that combined the shape of a donut with croissant dough broke new ground, and every bakery wanted to imitate it. In our country, pastry chef Joe Moretones had been pursuing the idea of using panettone dough to make an ensaimada for years. Apparently, based on its shape, it would be an ensaimada, but inside, it would be a panettone, with one key difference: it wouldn't have butter, but lard. He even dreamed about what he would name it: ensaïmattone.

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I read that the L'Estrella bakery, the oldest in Barcelona, ​​​​after being closed for a few months, will be able to celebrate its two hundredth anniversary. This is exceptional news, amid the avalanche of information about traditional businesses closing due to a lack of generational relevance, trades being lost, architectural heritage deteriorating, entire neighborhoods losing their personality. Great news.

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A year ago, Anna Campos received a message from a friend who wanted to buy panellets at L'Estrella, the oldest bakery in Barcelona. It had been closed for weeks. Anna had worked there, and she loved this emblematic business in the Raval district in the same way that a person loves a school where they have learned everything. With a call to the owner, Anna discovered that she was retiring and that there was no generational replacement. "Wouldn't you be interested?" they asked her. She didn't hesitate long. The only condition she put was that her friend, Judit Servent, join the project. Two 25-year-old girls were ready to save one of the most beautiful establishments in the city.

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"When you see how they unload the truck, you already know who will be on the podium," says a chocolatier who has been part of the jury of the World Chocolate Masters, the competition that made us discover a name: Lluc Crusellas, the boyfriend of Santa Eulàlia de Riuprimer which in 2022 won the most precious trophy in the world of cocoa. And all this, long before anyone thought he could win – well, someone did think that, we'll get to that – was recorded by Jordi Torra. A material that has now been transformed into a documentary and that could be seen at the Atlántida in Vic.

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In Ullastret, one of the towns with the most history in Catalonia, the Iberian capital of the Indigetes tribe during the 6th century BC, a new pastry shop has just opened that is aiming very high. It is the Pastelería 1001, owned by Eva Feliu, right next to Recuits Nuri, one of the most famous bakeries in this country. dairy product so typical of Empordà. After many years working and training as a pastry chef in large Michelin-starred restaurants, such as Aürt in Barcelona and Bo.Tic in Corçà, Eva Feliu, born in Ullastret and daughter of the second generation of Recuits Nuri, has decided to venture into her own business. A slow-burning project, designed to make desserts with total autonomy and freedom, far from the stress of the capital and without the obligations of the untimely hours of night shifts in a restaurant. It has only just started up this Christmas, with the first tests for friends and acquaintances of nougats and cakes. Now, in February, Feliu has everything in place to officially open and start selling to the general public.

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