A new edition of the World Chocolate Masters, one of the most prestigious and spectacular competitions, will be held during the Professional Salon du Chocolate in Paris, from 19th to 21st October this year. On this occasion, a total number of 19 professionals will show their best by making an artistic piece, a cake, a dessert and assorted bonbons based on the theme ‘Cacao, a gift from Quetzalcoatl’.

This is the final list of participants, selected after their respective national qualifying competitions: Seung Yun Lee (Australia), Ryan Stevenson (Belgium), Veronique Rousseau (Canada), Palle Sørensen (Denmark), Mariusz Buritta (Eastern Europe), Xavier Berger (France), Jana Ristau (Germany), Asgeir Sandholt (Iceland), Yumiko Saimura (Italy), Yoshiaki Uezaki (Japan), Damien Deslandes (Lebanon), Luis Robledo (Mexico), Frank Haasnoot (Netherlands), Alexander Ilyukhin (Russia), Francisco Somoza (Spain), Claudia Schmid (Switzerland), Chi Hsien Cheng (Taiwan), John Costello (United Kingdom) and Sylvain Bortolini (United States of America).

The firms organizing this contest (Cacao Barry, Callebaut and Carma) will do their best attempt to gather, once again, a spectacular international jury made up of the most prestigious figures from the pastry and chocolate industry.