2018 Winning Panettone: Ochiai Pastry
What does a panettone have to have to make it perfect? Fluffiness, right point of sugar, a lot, little or no fruit? And the chocolate pearls? What is valued, ladies and gentlemen, is the appearance, the cut, the smell, the texture, the honeycomb and the taste. The perfect balance between all these features is the answer. Answer given today in Milan, the city where the panettone was born, in the final of the ** III Contest for the Best Artisan Panettone in Spain **.
Organized by the Pastry School of the Guild of Barcelona (EPGB), "the contest aims to encourage and reward the knowledge and skills of Artisan pastry chefs in the field of panettone preparation , thus acknowledging the profession and the quality of the country's artisan pastry" , reads the first point of the official bases of the EPGB.
THE WINNER: A JAPANESE-CATALAN PASTRY MAKER
According to figures from Pastry Guild of Barcelona , the consumption of panettone in Spain has multiplied by 10 in the last five years, becoming a true revolution for this typical Christmas sweet from Milan. And among all these panettone that we consume with treachery, the one from the Ochiai pastry shop (in Barcelona) has been named the best panettone in Spain.
The grand prize winner: Ochiai
"We are the Japanese pastry shop of reference" , as defined on their website. And it is that this Japanese pastry shop has been working and baking cakes since 1983 in the Catalan capital. The hands and the savoir faire of Takashi Ochiai , the craftsman born in Nigatta who opened the business in the early 1980s in Barcelona, continues to work in this workshop. But it is Jordi Morello who leads the pastry team holding the reins of him.
In addition to typical Catalan sweets, in ochiai they work oriental recipes but also works of French or Italian pastry, such is the case of its winning panettone.
It is not the first award that gives him the recognition that this Japanese pastry chef deserves: in 2013, he won the award for the Best Artisan Butter Croissant in Spain, which is awarded every year by the Pastry School of the Guild of Barcelona **(and this year it ended up at the Sant Croi by Albert Roca bakery**).
Why Ochiai's and not another? "The Winning Panettone has stood out for its freshness and juiciness, as well as its honeycomb ", reads the evaluation of the judges. Shall we try it? The Ochiai pastry shop has won a prize of 1,000 euros and an identification award.
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR AN EXCELLENT PANETTONE
What do you have to have to enter a contest like this? First of all, and feeling very sorry for those chefs at home, only those who have a point of sale to the public can participate (that is, "all pastry shops, bakeries and other pastry making establishments in Spain", as the rules say competition) .
In addition, each establishment must present "a total of two home-made panettone, with an icing crown. Each panettone must have a total weight between 700 and 800 grams. **The type of panettone submitted to the contest must be the classic of fruits (lemon/cedar, orange and raisins)** ".
WHO HAS CHOSEN THE BEST PANETTONE?
An international jury with Italian pastry chefs have been in charge of testing the Spanish preparations and deciding which panettone from the peninsula is close to Italian excellence: "authentic eminences of this sweet, as is the case with Massari , the leading authority on artisan pastry in Italy", reads the announcement.
Together with him, Massimo Turuani and Andrea Besuschio and a jury completed with the winner of the 2017 edition, Oriol Balaguer, the president of the Barcelona Pastry Guild, Elies Miro ; the president of the Board of Directors of the Pastry Guild School, Pedro Camps; Paco Torreblanca , one of the first pastry chefs to bring panettone to Spain; Y Alberto Ruiz , editor of the magazine Dulcypass and Quico Sosa (Sosa Aliments) .