After a cycle of national selections followed by continental competitions, the Grand Final of the Pastry World Cup will be held on January 24–25 during Sirha Lyon 2025, in France. The 18 teams vying for the title of Pastry World Champion will compete around a common theme: national heritage. This theme offers candidates from all over the world the opportunity to showcase their country and culture through their creations.
More than 35 years after its creation, the Pastry World Cup is reportedly considered a major international pastry contest, bringing together the world’s best pastry chefs and highlighting the different visions, skills, and techniques of the entire profession.
The theme of this year's competition will highlight culture as the competing teams will have to work around the following theme: national heritage. This theme offers candidates the opportunity not only to sublimate their know-how, but also to share the cultural and gastronomic wealth of their country, with the mission of taking the jury members on a journey, to convince them.
Selected from all around the world, the 18 teams will have to combine technical skills, artistic spirit, and team spirit to highlight their cultural symbols and the culinary treasures of their homeland, to awaken the senses and create unique emotions. Each creation must tell a story: that of a country and its traditions.
This year, for the restaurant-style dessert test, each team will have to come up with a creation using an ingredient chosen and sourced in their own country. From Japan to Chile, Morocco, or the UK, the pastry chefs will showcase their expertise to impress the jury members with their own unique flavours, as well as the aesthetic appeal of the various artistic pieces they will be creating during the 9-hour competition.
This Grand Final will also see the creation of the “Show Chocolat” test, in which candidates will face a new challenge: to present their innovative creations in a street-food style, prepared in their box and finished on stage inside a food-truck in front of the jury members, while explaining their recipes in a video prepared beforehand, which will itself be rated.
"The show is an integral part of the competition, and emotions, whether through tastes, visuals or techniques, are inherent to competitions, especially the one about pastry. The ‘Show Chocolat’ test has been designed to make a completely new use of the stage and to give the candidates an unprecedented opportunity to take risks more than ever in the history of the Pastry World Cup. The teams will have to perform outside their kitchens, even closer to the public," explains Pierre Hermé, president of the Pastry World Cup.
Running order revealed
The schedule of the 18 teams can be found below.
