The secrets of the world’s best chocolatier

Lluc Crusellas, officially crowned the best chocolatier in the world after winning the 2022 World Chocolate Masters competition, is determined to turn high quality cocoa beans into a familiar and accessible product. Thus was born the Eukarya brand, a name that comes from the cells that make up cocoa: eukaryotes. “I felt that, after winning the contest, I had to bring the pastry and chocolate culture to the streets,” says the 27-year-old.

In a 7,500-square-foot workshop in Vic, the capital of the comarca of Osona, in Catalonia, Spain, Crusellas has concocted as many as 45 creations that use cocoa as their main ingredient. He transforms chocolate into bars, spheres or creams, and for Christmas, has launched a line of nougat and panettone. He says his intention is to make premium products at affordable prices. The cheapest chocolate bar costs 3.90 euros ($4.25) on the company’s website, and the most expensive is a box of twenty chocolates that runs around 31 euros ($33).

Crusellas started the business nine months ago with an initial investment of one million euros, which he secured through financing from, and a partnership with, the Catalan pastry company Pavic. Currently, he employs seven workers in the production area and one in the storefront of the same building in Vic, which has been open to the public since November 14. Several of the items produced by the company are also distributed in Barcelona’s Casa Atmetller, and at various pop-up stores that Crusellas has occasionally opened in the city or abroad, at Harrods luxury department stores in London, for example.

“If people want to try a puffed rice nougat with top quality dried fruit, and then they want to buy a simple, plain nougat with a lot of sugar, let them buy it, but let them try the best first,” he says. Crusellas has announced that in January, he will add five more desserts to the catalog that will replace the current Christmas one. “My philosophy is to make a product that is not complicated, in terms of taste, and that is well executed,” he says. The company is committed to online sales and says that it can distribute its products across Europe. He anticipates a turnover of 600,000 euros by the end of the season, but does not expect to start making a profit until next year.

“At the end of the day, a nine-euro chocolate bar is not accessible to the general public. We want buying chocolate to become an everyday possibility, not just something reserved for the weekend or bought as a gift,” Crusellas says, before returning to work. The chocolatier devotes his free time to cycling, a sport that, he says, has helped him find the strength and discipline to carry out the project. He continues to be impressed with how quickly it all happened. “It’s been crazy,” he says.

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