Choco-playing at the World Chocolate Masters world final

A Romanian confectioner is participating in the World Chocolate Masters finals

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 20.01.2026, 14:00

In 2002, the Romanian Marinel Bejan started working for the family business, a confectionery in Craiova set up by his mother, a pastry chef. This year, he is competing for the title of “World Chocolate Master” for Eastern Europe.

After 25 years of work for the family confectionery, during which he did anything from accounting to deliveries to cleaning, but always longing to be involved in actual production, our guest believes that there are still things for him to discover.

Over time, he has created his own brand of chocolate, playing with all kinds of cocoa bean flavours. Mexico, Ecuador and New Guinea are the types of cocoa that Marinel Bejan chose in creating his own chocolate: from Mexico, the acidic and floral note, the caramel note from Ecuador, and the woody, smoky one from New Guinea, as Marinel Bejan explained us:

Marinel Bejan: “In terms of top notes, we have first a light acidity and some delicate and floral flavours, then we feel some slight notes of hazelnuts and caramel, and finally we feel what I could describe as a tobacco, or smoke aroma. As for the texture, all the chocolate we use is the smoothest chocolate in the world!”

Our guest also told us that the smoothness of chocolate is measured using special devices that assess its internal granulation, cocoa powder, sugar, cocoa butter.

For two decades, the World Chocolate Masters World Final has brought together the most talented chefs and artisan chocolatiers from around the world. The World Chocolate Masters is organised every 4 years and designates the most gifted chocolatier in the world. And because Romania does not have a chocolatier school, and this job is not even included in the official list of professions, Marinel Bejan will compete this year for Eastern Europe. The preliminary selection started in March 2024, with 7 candidates registered, only 4 of whom actually participated in the competition. Marinel Bejan:

Marinel Bejan: “Four people took part in the competition, which was held in Belgrade. That was the preliminary selection. After the end of all the tests, only one person went on to the World Chocolate Masters final. There are parts of the world where several countries are grouped together, such as Eastern Europe, or the Netherlands together with Luxembourg and Belgium. Italy, France and other countries with a relevant tradition have their own separate preliminary selection process, and one participant goes into the final. There will only be 15 of us in October, in Belgium.”

Marinel Bejan also explained:

Marinel Bejan: “When the preliminary selection was held in Belgrade, all countries received an invitation: from Hungary, to Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Greece. And prospective candidates from each country had the chance to register. I had competitors from Bulgaria, from Greece, there was also another colleague from Romania, another one from Serbia and that was it. Training takes years, you can’t prepare for something like that for just a year. Intensive training and strict preparations for the competition take several months, when we fine-tune our recipes, all the projects and the design of all the products that we want to present. This competition is quite elaborate, there is no emphasis on one thing, on creativity, on innovation, on the artistic side, you need a little bit of each. I think I manage to achieve all of them, but more importantly, until I reach the final I need a team to support me and to give me specific advice. I need the experience of other people who have participated in prestigious competitions, I need an architect or a designer, because the latest regulations emphasise innovation as well as the contrast between modern and classic designs. We were given the example of the city of Antwerp, in Belgium, where the final is held, which is a city of the arts, but also a city of contrasts.”

And as every edition has a theme, Marinel Bejan told us how they are going to tackle the theme this year:

Marinel Bejan: “The theme is “Play and taste”. Every time themes were established, they offered the chance of playing with imagination and with everything that means originality. We started off from simple things and used our imagination to create new things, new tastes and new techniques. One of the essential conditions is to use local ingredients, to bring the national and local influence into the competition, and I believe every competitor will do this, you know. I haven’t decided yet, I am at the stage when I am not thinking of ingredients, but I am considering one concept. Luckily we have a lot of original things or things specific to Oltenia or to Romania. The national offer is so big and there are so many things I could use in my desserts that I believe it is not going to be very difficult to choose something. In the preselection stage I remember I used citronella and local ingredients, such as fresh strawberries, as they were in season, some spices, mint. And that because in the preselection stage there were different regulations, and other themes. There we had to play a little bit with the artistic side. Now that rules have changed, I need to get some inspiration local or Romanian architecture.” 

The contest also has the sculpted chocolate event and in the finals of 2022 participants used tons of chocolate. We wish good luck to Marinel Bejan and we are looking forward to seeing his creations this year in the World Finals of World Chocolate Masters.

(AMP)