Belcolade Award 2026: the public chooses the pastry chef capable of showcasing chocolate

The online voting for the Belcolade Award 2026, the award created by Puratos Italia which for years has celebrated pastry chefs capable of showcasing chocolate through technique, creativity and research.

The competition

Just as the interpretation of cocoa in haute pâtisserie is constantly evolving, so too is the award being renewed. This year, the competition becomes a true recognition of a professional career, designed to celebrate those who have built distinctive value in the sector over time, making chocolate an identifying feature of their business through dedicated products, creations and ranges.

The candidates’ professional stories will be at the heart of the evaluation, and for the first time the public’s vote will also count. Voting, which opened on 9 July, will close today 4 September via the form available on the Belcolade social media channels.

“The Belcolade Award was created to nurture talent, and this edition represents its natural evolution: from rewarding a single creation to recognising an entire career path,” explains Valentina Bianchi, Marketing Director of Puratos Italia. “Opening the vote to the public means bringing these stories out of the laboratories and sharing them with all enthusiasts. It is consistent with what we do every day with Cacao-Trace: showing that behind great chocolate there is always a supply chain of people, from the grower to the pastry chef.”

The expert panel

To ensure the rigour of the selection, a panel of ten experts representing the entire Italian sweet-food supply chain.

Four master pastry chefs from theItalian Pastry Chefs Academy: Luca Montersino, one of the best-known figures in national pastry-making; Carmen Vecchione of Dolciarte; Domenico Spadafora of Spadafora Dessert; Maurizio Frau, Italian Chocolate-Making Champion 2018.

They are joined by food journalists Francesca Tagliabue and Lydia Capasso and professionals Enrico Rizzi, Kabir Godi, pastry chef of the Cannavacciuolo Group, and Davide Boidi, Production Manager at Giraudi. Valentina Bianchi represents Puratos Italia on the panel.

Each panellist proposed three deserving candidates for the award, helping to compile the longlist. On11 May, during the first meeting held remotely, each member of the panel then awarded a score from 1 to 5 to each profile. The six professionals who received the highest scores became the finalists of the 2026.

The six finalists

Six names and six stories illustrate the richness of contemporary Italian pastry-making and chocolate-making.

Alessandro Spegis, born in Turin in 1985, after international experience alongside Paco Torreblanca and more than a decade as Guido Gobino’s chocolatier, opened 2024 Spegis Cioccolato, where Piedmontese tradition meets a personal vision.

Alessio Gallelli, born in 1995, leads the pastry department at the Park Hyatt Milan and the Pellico gastronomic restaurant 3. Having trained in the brigades of Andrea Berton and Nino Di Costanzo, in 2024 he won the award for Italy’s best restaurant pastry-making, presented by Grande Cucina.

Carolina Teodori, after twelve years with the Da Vittorio family of chefs Cerea—including experience from St. Moritz to Shanghai, and finally at DaV Mare in Portofino—at the age of thirty she chose to return to Martinengo to open her own Pasticceria Carolina.

Daniele Bonzi has a CV spanning the three-Michelin-starred Da Vittorio and The Fat Duck, Harrods and Bulgari Hotel. After ten years at the helm of the pastry department at the Four Seasons in Milan, since 2025 he has held the role of Corporate Pastry Chef at the Buonocore Hospitality Group.

Francesco Federici is Executive Pastry Chef at Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, an ambassador for pastry-making founded on balance, technical rigour and measured sweetness.

Francesca Caon, born in 1993, is maître chocolatier and founder of Caon Chocolate, an artisanal and digital enterprise in Racconigi that presents chocolate as an emotional and relational language.

The public vote

The top three in the online vote will receive a bonus: 10 points for first place, 8 for second place and 4 for third place. The bonus will be added to the final assessment by the expert panel, which will meet in person in Milan in the second half of September to award each finalist a score from 1 to 5. The winner of the Belcolade Award 2026.

will be determined by adding the panellists’ scores to the bonuses obtained through the online vote. Cacao-Trace, Puratos’ sustainable supply-chain programme, which promotes cocoa quality and better living conditions for farming communities.

It will be an experience at the source of the raw material that supports the work of chocolate professionals every day. The official announcement will take place on Sunday 4 October 2026, at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, during the Gala Dinner of the XXX Public Symposium of the Italian Pastry Chefs Academy. The evening will bring together the best of Italian pastry-making and crown the professional who, more than anyone else, has succeeded in making chocolate their signature.

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.