“ As soon as the package is opened, a buttery fragrance is released. We guess, on the top, the crunch of the almond icing, and inside, the sweetness of the candied fruits. It is then enough to seize a piece from which one pulls the crumb, which is detached in long filaments. » Benoît Castel, pastry baker in Paris, never tires of tasting the panettone he offers in his three shops, from November to January. Because it is the other great quality of this Italian pastry: the sourdough, the fermentation and the butter in quantity allow a long conservation.
A symbol of Italian Christmas, this festive cake has conquered other lands, even the homeland of gastronomy. ” The French have appropriated it: it has even become an emblematic holiday product here,” adds the pastry chef who has been making it successfully for several years. Result: in France, these breads multiply in storefronts, wrapped in pretty colored paper, and tied with large bolducs.
This soft and fragrant brioche delight, born in Milan, is, according to one of the many legends, the result of a mistake in the kitchen. It’s in the XVe century, during a ducal banquet at the court of Ludovico Sforza, that a clerk named Toni caught up with the chef’s burnt dessert with a cake made the day before for the brigade, made from candied fruit. The guests, delighted with the result, called the cake “pan de Toni” in honor of the young cook – hence the panettone.
For us, the pioneer is La Grande Epicerie du Bon Marché, which has been offering it at Christmas for around thirty years and which sells no less than 20,000 pieces a year. An exponential trend certainly due to a rigorous selection, which favors the Boot – but without forgetting French excellence. “We have gone in recent years from ten to twenty references of artisanal panettones which all come from Italy, with one exception, that of the Frenchman Christophe Louie”, explains Laurent Trégaro, the grocery purchasing manager. A “made in France” panettone that has nothing to envy to its transalpine counterparts.
