Chök, the (Spanish) pastry shop that makes Hollywood fall in love with its cakes

On June 10, the legendary American actress and singer Judy Garland (1922-1969) would have turned one hundred years old.

To commemorate this anniversary, that same day a special gala is held at the elegant The Ebell Club in Los Angeles

, among whom will be the children of the myth of the 40s and 50s, Liza Minnelli and Lorna and Joseph Luft, and the hottest among Hollywood actors and celebrities.

The one in charge of making the exclusive cake for this festival-tribute is

, specializing in chocolate and famous for its

, which has a dozen stores in Spain.

The firm will have to make, in addition to the special cake for the family, another nearly 400 identical mini-cakes for the rest of the guests, which they will accompany with some special chocolates and chocolate bars.

All this packed in an elegant box.

"During the pandemic, the event agency in Los Angeles that was preparing the gala contacted us. They knew our products and asked us if we were interested in making the cake for the event," says Fernando Madrid, founder of chök.

The baker gladly accepted.

"They wanted a chocolate cake in honor of the actress, which she could never eat because, although she loved it, they wouldn't let her in Hollywood. And they also needed something different from the typical American desserts, too sweet," continues Fernando.

"So I proposed to make a cake inspired by the aromas of the new perfume dedicated to the actress,

which her daughters, Liza Minelli and Lorna Luft, will present at the event."

Fernando Madrid (second from the right), together with the perfumer Vincenzo Spinnato (second from the left) and part of the chök team.

The long-awaited cake (its appearance is a total surprise) consists of a chocolate cake and a

with infusions of three ingredients included in the fragrance: coriander, vanilla and pink pepper, which are also joined by grapefruit and the tonka bean

The cake, which in principle will not be sold to the public, also bears the firm's hallmark: "It is something very informal, imperfect and homemade. We presented it a month ago in Los Angeles and they loved it. We have deconstructed of the perfume brought to the cake, and that was the magic that most captivated them", says Fernando.

Until there, the necessary kilos of chocolate and other ingredients will be taken to make the sweets.

Beginnings and success

The first chök store opened in 2013 in an old 19th-century chocolate factory in Barcelona with a very casual, imperfect, home-grown type of pastry based around chocolate as the main ingredient.

"The first six months were very hard and we were about to close, but starting in January 2014, we began to grow and be very successful, thanks to a product that has made us very famous in Europe and in the world", according to your Creator.

That product is called

, a donut-shaped croissant converted into a cake of several varieties, which is its best seller (about 500 a day).

One of the famous kronuts of chök.

Currently, the brand has 50 varieties of products, including

, cookies,

, brownies, cakes, chocolate chips..., which are made and finished within the day in the 12 stores they have throughout Spain (two of them in Madrid).

The premises stand out for their shop windows, with a lot of color and a great diversity of products, always under the theme of chocolate, which makes them very striking.

"The textures, the colors... come through the eyes and all of this has contributed to making us famous, because there is nothing like it on the market, neither in Spain nor in the United States," explains Fernando.

To respond to new gastronomic trends and the new interests of its consumers, the brand has developed an extensive range of vegan and gluten-free products.

Even in Barcelona they have opened a place with the same concept but 100% gluten-free that is working very well.

The pastry chef Fernando Madrid in one of his Chök stores in Barcelona.

The firm has already closed expansion projects in Andalusia and Valencia, and

where they are about to open a store in Riyadh at the end of June.

"Saudi investors fell in love and saw that it is a concept that is not there; they have everything and the best, but not something like that. We have many Arab clients," says Fernando.

The firm also has online and home sales services.

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