TURN.- The famous gianduiotto of Turin, a small chocolate creamy, melt-in-your-mouth wine, is at the center of a battle for a European label that pits Italian artisans against Swiss colossus Lindt. Its sweetness has not been enough to calm spirits, despite the proximity of the Christmas.
In his workshop on the outskirts of Turin, Luca Ballesio, 42, dressed in a white apron, kneads and rubs the chocolate dough with spatulas before cutting pieces with a knife and carefully placing them, one by one, on a plate. tray.
This chocolatier with a precise gesture is one of the last gianduiotto producers to use this ancient manual method that gives the delicacy its typical triangular prism shape with rounded edges.
He is part of a committee of about 40 artisanal chocolatiers and companies such as Ferrero, Venchi and Domori, who are trying to obtain a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) for the gianduiotto, a seal quality European. The objective is to increase its notoriety, multiply its sales, estimated at 200 million euros (218 million dollars) annually, and perpetuate the Turin chocolate tradition.
But the objections of Lindt, who since 1997 has owned the manufacturer Italian Caffarel, who claims paternity of the gianduiotto, could derail the project, currently blocked in the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.
The battle that pits the Piedmontese chocolatiers against Lindt is important because it is about: “valuing a historic product from Turin,” explains Ballesio.
The committee prepared a very detailed specification that must be scrupulously respected by those who wish to label their products with the future PGI.
The perfect chocolate recipe
Faithful to tradition, he advocates returning to the original gianduiotto recipe: 30% to 45% toasted hazelnuts from Piedmont, at least 25% cocoa and sugar.
However, this 200-year-old magic potion is not to Lindt’s taste, which defends the addition of milk powder and wants to lower the minimum hazelnut content to 26%.
Quite a heresy in the eyes of the guardians of tradition. “At that time there was no powdered milk. Adding milk to chocolate is a bit like cutting wine with water,” explains Guido Castagna, 49, president of the Gianduiotto committee of Turin.
A few days before Christmas, production in his artisan workshop in Giaveno, near Turin, is in full swing. The master chocolatier pours the hazelnuts into a roasting device that toasts them before grinding them and mixing them with the cocoa.
The chocolate then goes through a machine that pours it directly onto a conveyor belt without using molds. The gianduiotto is hand-wrapped, piece by piece, in shiny aluminum foil, ready to be placed at the foot of the Christmas tree.
“We do not want to take anything away from Caffarel, we are not at war against Caffarel. But Caffarel must be clear that we defend the gianduiotto as it was originally produced,” says Castagna.
carnival figure
For his part, Caffarel assures that he is not opposed to the recognition of a PGI origin certification, which could: “contribute to the prestige of the gianduiotto in Italy and in the world.”
But the Lindt subsidiary has its own brand, Gianduia 1865. The Authentic Gianduiotto de Turin and fears that the creation of a similar PGI, Gianduiotto de Turin, will cause confusion.
“Our goal is to find an agreement that satisfies all parties and that allows Caffarel to protect the historical value of its brand,” he argued.
After the naval blockade ordered in 1806 by Napoleon against England, which caused a shortage of cocoa, Turinese chocolatiers turned for the first time to hazelnuts, abundant in Piedmont.
But it was not until 1865 when Piedmont hazelnut paste was named after a carnival figure, Gianduia, symbol of Turin, and began to be marketed by Caffarel.
“Caffarel knows where to find us and if they think there may be an opening, we are ready to talk to them,” declared Antonio Borra, lawyer for the IGP committee.
However, clarify: “there are points on which we cannot give in, starting with the name of Turn, which belongs to the territory and not to a single company.”
FUENTE: AFP
