Dutch chocolatier declared World Chocolate Master

After three days of tempering, molding, whipping and baking, a world chocolate competition bestowed sweet victory onto a chocolatier from the Netherlands who trounced rivals from Belgium, France and Japan for his elegant praline bonbons, chocolate cake and fearsome, towering Aztec warrior.

Frank Haasnoot beat 19 rivals from around the world on October 21 to take home bragging rights as the World Chocolate Master. The competition was held in conjunction with the annual Salon de Chocolat show in Paris and takes place every two years.

Japan and Denmark took second and third prize respectively.

Streamed live online for the first time this year, competitors were tasked with creating a chocolate cake, two pralines, a dessert and one free-form artistic creation as their finale, all to the thematic tune of “Quetzalcoatl’s Gift” in homage to the supernatural origins of cocoa and its mythology in ancient Aztec civilization.

Thanks to the streaming and edited video excerpts which are now available on the World Chocolate Masters website, viewers can still watch how the world’s best chocolatiers are able to transform a notoriously fickle medium into intricate jewelry, imposing, fearsome Aztec warriors and dainty, restaurant desserts.

Cakes are shellacked with glossy coats of chocolate, all manner of power tools and instruments — from toothpicks to blowtorches  — are used to manipulate chocolate, and drama follows a few competitors when their showpieces collapse in heart-stopping moments of crushing disappointment.

For Haasnoot, meanwhile, the win will likely bring him worldwide recognition in the chocolate world as it did for the previous winner, Japan’s Shigeo Hirai. Haasnoot, 30, is currently the executive pastry chef at Dobla, a wholesale supplier of high-end desserts. His showpiece, a fearsome, imposing ‘warrior of darkness in search of cocoa in the mysteries of the jungle’ can also be seen on the World Chocolate Masters website at www.worldchocolatemasters.com/en/.

Watch the drama and chocolate unfold at http://www.youtube.com/user/WorldChocolateMaster#p/a/u/0/ZYNCgdSUw7Y.

The next World Chocolate Masters will be in 2013.

This site is hosted by (click on the graphic for more information)

Return from chocolate to Home Page

Chocolate with Bill & Sheila