Italy's Tommaso Grollero wins World Chocolate Masters 2026
The Italian chocolatier took the title at the Grand Final in Antwerp, beating 14 other finalists in a competition marking its 20th anniversary this year.
Tommaso Grollero won the World Chocolate Masters 2026 title in Antwerp, the competition announced on 27 October, after a two-day Grand Final that drew 15 chocolatiers from around the world to the city's historic Handelsbeurs exchange building.
The Italian chocolatier's win caps a cycle of national and regional selections that ran through much of 2026, feeding finalists into the Antwerp final from countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia. This year's edition marked the competition's 20th anniversary.
Judges scored finalists across pastry, chocolate and confectionery disciplines over the two days, with technical execution weighed alongside presentation and flavour. An international jury drawn from pastry houses and hotel schools oversaw the scoring; the organisers have not published a detailed breakdown or named the runners-up.
A World Chocolate Masters title trades on technical precision, not prize money alone.
Twenty years of a travelling final
Antwerp hosted the Grand Final for the first time this year, a city with its own deep ties to Belgian chocolate houses and cocoa trading. Previous editions have rotated between France and other European cities since the competition's founding two decades ago, each host putting its own confectionery scene briefly in the spotlight. Organisers say the travelling format keeps the competition tied to working pastry kitchens rather than a single fixed home.
Belgium's own chocolate scene has had a busy autumn: in the same city, a budget wine bar opened with glasses from €1, a reminder that Antwerp's food and drink calendar runs well beyond its chocolate houses.
What the title changes
A World Chocolate Masters win typically opens doors to brand consultancy work, teaching posts and guest appearances at trade fairs, the usual currency for a title built on technical precision rather than prize money alone.
For now, Grollero's win adds Italy to a list of past champions that already includes the Netherlands, France and Japan, underscoring how unevenly spread chocolate's competitive elite still remains even as the craft itself keeps globalising, with national federations now running selections on four continents.
