France's Thibault Gonzales crowned world pie champion
An emblematic dish of our gastronomic heritage, as technical as it is refined, pâté-croûte has had its own World Championship since 2009. On Monday December 1st, the sixteenth final was held in Lyon, open to professionals from the culinary and catering trades.
Thibault Gonzales succeeds Japanese Taiki Mano, champion in 2024. Another Frenchman, Jonathan Dudek of Charcuterie Arnaud Nicolas in Paris, took second place on the podium, ahead of Japan's Seigo Ishimoto, who won bronze.
A Frenchman on the top step of the podium
Thibault Gonzales, manager of the L'Espace Gourmand butchery and delicatessen in Thuir, Pyrénées-Orientales, won the édition 2025 with a pate-croûte featuring Basque pork belly, duck foie gras magret from the Landes region and veal sweetbreads. According to Audrey Merle, co-founder of the Confrérie du Pâté-Croûte, which organizes the championship, the jury, presided over by chef Franck Giovannini of the Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville in Crissier (Switzerland), was "unanimous" in its praise for the product. Crissier (Switzerland), accompanied by some thirty chefs, pastry chefs, chocolatiers and winemakers, including Michel Roth (MOF), Mathieu Viannay (MOF), Nina Métayer, Paul Marcon (Bocuse d'Or 2025), Régis Marcon (Bocuse d'Or 1995), Jacques Decoret (MOF), Joseph Viola (MOF)...
For several years now, French and Japanese chefs have been vying for first place. In 2024, the top two positions were occupied by Japan's Taiki Mano and Seigo Ishimoto.
Sixteen years of global competition
Since 2009, this championship, originally organized by a group of friends wishing to compete against each other in the honorary title of "world champion", has enjoyed growing success. For a long time confined to France, the competition has for some years now been rewarding talent from all over the world, who compete against each other in finals held over the last few months in Switzerland, Mexico, Montreal, Monaco, London, Tokyo, Copenhagen and Paris. In all, sixteen candidates (chefs, pastry chefs, charcutiers, butchers, caterers, bakers), including seven Frenchmen, were competing this 1ᵉʳ December 2025 in Lyon.
note that in parallel, another World Championship is open to hotel schools and CFA. For this 6th edition, it's Drôme's Tanguy Escandell who takes the title with a pâté-croûte featuring Drôme farmhouse poultry, Ardèche pork, morel mushrooms and straw wine jelly.
