AN ENTIRELY ITALIAN STORY OF MASTER PASTRY

PANETTONE AND PANDORO 
CHEFS AND IMPRESSIONIST PAINTERS


Panettone is one of Italy's traditional Christmas "cakes" which is also highly
appreciated abroad with growing exports in recent years, with a +14% in 2013 alone for turnover of 500 million euros per year.
A history of craftsmanship and inventiveness, where legend merges with reality. This confectionery bread is leavened and mixed with honey, raisins and pumpkin and seems to have been baked as early as 1200 in Milan. Yet many people prefer the more romantic story dating back to 1400, "starring" Ughetto, son of warlord Giacometto degli Atellani, who fell in love with the beautiful Adalgisa. To be as close as possible to his loved one, he masqueraded as pastry chef with her father, a certain Toni, and invented a rich bread prepared with butter, eggs, sugar, citron, oranges and raisins. A love story with a happy ending that saw the appearance of "Pan de Toni", hence the modern name "panettone". And the "panettone" cake we know today? It was Angelo Motta who used this name and developed the dome-like shape in the early 1900s.
Currently, however, young people increasingly prefer "pandoro", another typical Christmas cake with a long history and Venetian origins. According to legend "pan de oro" was first made during the time of the Venetian Republic, when an unknown pastry chef served a cake covered with fine gold foil to the Court of the Doges. There is also a specific date for the first "pandoro" as we know it today. 14 October 1884: the date when Domenico Melegatti filed a patent that saw the birth of a cake made with a soft dough having a characteristic truncated eight-point star shape designed by artist Dall'Oca Bianca, an impressionist painter.
Today, the story of "panettone" and "pandoro" continues thanks to the inventiveness of new "craftsmen of taste" who blend these traditional cakes with unusual flavours and tastes. New this year? The gourmet ice cream panettone with salted ice cream, seasoned with delicatessen meat and vegetables.