The cheesecake that pastry chef Pau Carranza prepares at the Larrosa pastry shop, in Flix (Ribera d'Ebre), has been proclaimed Best Catalan Cheesecake 2024. It is the second edition that this award has been held at the Fira Lactium in Vic , which brings together around 40 Catalan cheese factories with an offer of more than 200 artisan cheeses.
The competition regulations dictate that participating cheesecakes must include at least 20% local Catalan cheese. In this case, Carranza's is made with Serra del Tormo, a soft sheep's cheese from cheesemaker Julio Manero. In fact, the Manero farm is located less than 15 minutes by car from the Larrosa pastry shop, so it is a product of maximum proximity.
Carranza's baked cake, round and approximately one and a half kilos, combines sheep's cheese with cream cheese, mascarpone cheese and cream. It joined the pastry shop a year ago when the first edition of the contest was held and it sells for 32 euros per kilo. The jury, who unanimously chose it, highlighted its technique, the perfection of the browning and creaminess, as well as the precise cut and, in terms of flavor, "the delicate and balanced presence of the soft cheese."
In addition to the recognition, the prize includes 1,000 euros in cash and the provision of a completely free stand at the next edition of the Fira Lactium to sell the winning cheesecake. Likewise, another of the benefits that Carranza will receive will be to be part of the jury for the Best Catalan Cheesecake Award 2025.
This weekend the best Catalan artisan cheeses of the year have also been recognized in Vic. The top winner was Claustre, who won the gold medal in the fifteen categories of the competition. It is a hard sheep cheese produced by Sílvia Soler and Joan Esteve in the natural cellar under the cloister of the El Miracle monastery, in the municipality of Riner (Solsonès).
Since Formatgería El Miracle began its activity a few years ago, its products have achieved numerous recognitions, as has the ratafía they make around this monastery where a small community of Benedictine monks lives and which houses the largest baroque altarpiece in Catalonia.
In the fifteenth edition of the Artisan Cheeses of Catalonia competition, other categories awarded were the best hard, soft or sour cow, buffalo and goat cheeses, "tupins", blue cheeses and Garrotxa cheese. As a novelty, the "thugs" have been divided into three sections: goat, in which Farm Armengol has won; of cow, in what has been recognized in Mató de Montserrat Cal Pujolet, and scraps and annealed sheep, which has been deserted.
