Antoni Escriba, an award-winning pastry chef who worked wonders with chocolate and once used it to fashion a replica of the Vatican, died Monday in Cadaques, Spain. He was 73.

Escriba fell and suffered a head injury Monday while visiting a Salvador Dali museum with his wife and grandson.

Over a career spanning 60 years, Escriba received honors as a master chef from the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and a cultural medal from the town council of Barcelona.

Escriba came from a family of pastry chefs but wanted to be a sculptor. The death of two siblings forced him to join the family business, and over time he melded his two passions by becoming what he called a sculptor of chocolate.

He also gave many lectures in which he vehemently defended the use of high-quality chocolate as opposed to cheap, adulterated versions.

“I am a Che Guevara of chocolate,” he said last year, according to La Vanguardia.