A Mexican music student who came to Barcelona to learn medieval music wins the prize for the best panettone in the world in Italy. The grace of food is that sometimes it leaves us with such wonderful stories as that of Tonatiuh Cortés, the Barcelona baker whom the Italians have just named as the creator of the best panettone in the world.
It was at the Coppa del Mondo del Panettone held this weekend in Milan, where the panettone from Cortés’ bakery, Suca’l Cloudstreet Bakery, won first prize.
The award is no small feat. In a competition as purist as can only be one of Italian products, it is usual that the first place goes to Italian artisans. In this case, Tonatiuh (Mexican, Barcelona-born, musician… anything but Italian) took the gold in a podium where both the second and third places went to Italians.
The rules of the competition are, in fact, very strict. The ingredients have to be Italian (the same organization is responsible for sending them) and Tinatiuh had to travel a few days before to Milan (along with Daniel Jordà, from Panes Creativos, who has also participated in the competition) to explain how the process of creating his panettone has been.
How is the best panettone in the world
In a report to 324, Tonatiuh explains that the key to his panettone is the sourdough they work with, which even has its own name: Eulàlia. It has more than 10 years of life and they take care of it daily with specific temperatures and proportions to ensure a happy, healthy and tasty life.
Cortés has been perfecting the recipe for years, and it is already a benchmark in Barcelona, where it won the award for the best panettone of 2019. At the time this award, for a still small bakery, meant an almost unbearable avalanche of requests for panettones. Now, probably, this award will end up meaning the same thing.
Barcelona, world capital of panettone
With Suca’l’s award, Barcelona becomes the panettone capital in 2024. On the one hand there is Tonatiuh’s panettone, which is officially the best in the world.
On the other hand, a few days ago two bakeries in Barcelona won the two prizes for the best panettone in the country in the Best Artisan Panettone of the Best Artisan Panettone of Spain 2024 contest of the Gastronòmic Forum of Barcelona, where Mervier Canal (award for the best classic panettone) and Madeleine by Ferrières Barcelona (award for the best chocolate panettone) turned Barcelona into the world capital of panettone.