No competition of this scope would be credible without a roster of judges who have the respect of their peers. The competition organizers recognize this and work very hard to secure a judging panel with the experience to pass judgment on the teams competing.

The Judging Panel consists of three teams. The Work Jury is charged with evaluating how the teams compete - their work habits, cleanliness, teamwork, and adherence to rules with respect to what is brought into their competition kitchen. The Degustation Jury is responsible for evaluating the quality of the work produced (bonbons, entremet, entremet glace, petits gateaux, and plated desserts). Teams are required to submit recipes, descriptions, and diagrams in advance, and the work is evaluated for adherence to the recipes as well as against technical criteria that vary according to each category (e.g., for entremet there is a weight range). The Degustation Jury is composed of several teams because it's too much to ask each member of the jury to taste everything that is made. The Artistic Jury is responsible for evaluating the buffet tables which include both the chocolate and sugar showpieces as well as a pastillage tray that is used to hold one of the entremets each team is required to produce.

The Judging Panel is overseen by a Head Judge who is responsible for interpreting the rules.

Scoring is a complex process that requires carefully tabulating the scores for each judge on each team's performance across a broad range of technical and other criteria.

There are individual scores for taste (degustation) for each team for each of the five different work products. Each of these individual scores is compiled from the judges rating dozens of individual factors that include, among other things, how well the piece interprets the theme of the competition. In addition to the degustation scores (which are added up to arrive at an aggregate composite score), there are separate scores for work and artistry.