Alfonso Pepe, the eternal boy who dreams of the perfect panettone

A life for Panettone. Alfonso Pepe Mastro Dolciere, from Sant'Egidio di Monte Albino, in the province of Salerno, on the slopes of the Lattari mountains, is used to records. He was the first pastry chef to make a designer panettone south of the Rubicon, in Campania, but above all he was the only pastry chef to win the Re Panettone Award four times, the most important in Italy, beating, or rather that would be to say, humiliating, all the competitors from Lombardy (and calculating that Panettone is a historic Milanese dessert, that's no small thing) but also from Piedmont, (who have a lot to teach all of Italy in terms of desserts), and so on. And he has collected many prizes such as at the Palazzo Caracciolo Mg Sofitel in Naples where a jury of sacred pastry chefs of the caliber of Igino Massari, recognized Grand Master of allGino Fabbri President of the Academy of Italian Pastry Chefs, Francesco Boccia World Pastry Champion, they awarded him the first prize for Panettone with apricots from Vesuvius and sweet Mel di Antonio Caggiano. But we could continue with another prestigious competition, "Slowfood, Dolce Natale". Pepe had to contend with panettone from: Pasticceria Loison in Costabissara, in the province of Vicenza; Sal De Riso from Minori; Fiasconaro brothers of Castelbuono in the province of Palermo; Pastry Veneto (Brescia) of Iginio Massari. And once again the challenge was won.

And he didn't limit himself to panettone, because his curiosity also pushed him to the Easter grounds of the Colomba and even on this occasion he was never one step behind. In a blind test of the ten best Italian pastry chefs Paolo Massobrio spoke of "surprise of the sublimation of Alfonso Pepe's leavened product" and Pepe ranked first, beating everyone, with this motivation: “Perfect. We could close the description here, and leave any further comment to your taste. Perfect from the outset, in the fine and well-distributed honeycomb. Impeccable in the perfumes, of fresh butter, almonds, eggs. When tasted, it is striking for its fragrance and balance. Less "explosive" than that of Iginio Massari, but with a unique elegance. If the dove is the art of dough, here it is, the perfect dough”. And still to stay on the record, it is not bad to remember that Alfonso Pepe from his laboratory in Sant'Egidio di Monte Albino on the road that leads from Ravello to the Amalfi coast where he is helped by the Prisco brothers, Giuseppe and Anna bakes an average of 50.000 artisanal panettone the year. One can ask oneself at this point: but how was Pepe born? Guided by an overwhelming passion that has seized you since childhood, as has happened for many successful chefs. At the age of 11, as soon as he left school, he ran away from his uncle who had a pastry shop, but not out of gluttony, because he liked perfumes, watching the work being done, stopping to see how the colors were arranged, in short, it was like immersing yourself in a world of fable. He began to learn the secrets of confectionery, but those he learned in his country were not enough for him. He began to travel around Italy and France and to study manufacturing and cooking techniques at L'Etoile, Cast Aliment, L'Ecole de Paris. The world of yeasts "swollen" before his eyes much later when he was now grown up. Sourdough, these cakes that swelled like clouds, was another discovery that fascinated him and also marked his life as a pastry chef. But it was not an easy success. He worked on it for ten years, it seems incredible, without ever being satisfied with the result. Ten years of continuous attempts, of continuously varied dosages, of cooking times studied down to the second, of ingredients sought everywhere, because even a grape is capable of producing effects on leavening. Eventually he made it, but all this frantic search for raw materials and this commitment to workmanship has a price. He still remembers that when he baked the first panettone that satisfied him, he placed a tray with some slices on the counter of his restaurant to entice his customers to buy. People, faithful to the traditions of the babà, the lemon delight, the sfogliatelle, the frolle, the pastiere, the capresi or the extraordinary classic Neapolitan repertoire, tasted it curiously, they found it good, but when it came to ordering, they withdrew because the price was very high. What happened with panettone therefore happened (and still happens) for wine or oil having to deal with products of large industry in terms of low costs and not the quality of the product which has a cost but which returns it with the interests of the consumer. But Alfonso Pepe, who is not lacking in character, held out. And in the end he won.

 His panettone today contains all the experience accumulated over years and years of sacrifice always in search of perfection. The writer is an eyewitness of an occasion in which the weather had changed due to the dough having been affected. Pepe didn't think twice about it. He threw everything away, giving up a day's earnings to start over. Because Panettone is mastery in the processing of mother yeast and its maintenance, in the preparation of the leavened dough, in the definition of the shape, in the rigorous 36 hours of natural leavening, in the slow cooking and in the cooling ability. And when it comes to raw materials, it's easy to say that a Sicilian almond is different from an Apulian almond, and the egg is never the same as that from another farm. and only continuous research will give you certain emotions. Today Pepe is satisfied with the result obtained: "we selected the egg yolks, candied fruit, raisins, Vesuvius apricots which I bought directly from a local farmer which I then had candied, but the search continues". In truth, he bought everything he could in Italy. Raisins, the non-raisins, after having tasted and experimented with Spanish, North African and Middle Eastern grapes, he managed to find the one he wanted in terms of sweetness, softness, humidity and flavor only in Australia. And that says a lot.

Only an obsessive respect in the observance of these rules of art has allowed a Salerno native of Sant'Egidio di Monte Albino to climb very high on the scale of pastry excellence and create the best of the preparations of the Lombard tradition, unique in terms of fragrance, aroma and flavour. His inflexible desire for perfectionism has helped him, but also the humility with which he has always approached his job, never a self-referential word that has come out of his mouth, never feeling he has arrived, never an attitude of sufficiency towards colleagues and employees . When you talk to us his shyness also makes you understand that in the shop he becomes a formidable weapon, so nothing is ever taken for granted and there is always a curiosity to satisfy around the corner.

In short, if today Pepe is one of the leading names in the "southern school" that has established itself in Italy, and now also abroad, owes it to that sensation of the fairy-tale world that captured him when, at the age of 11, he went to his uncle's pastry chef, and he felt like Alice in Wonderland, he owes it to fact that, despite 40 years having passed, he has always remained within himself the child who closes his eyes and dreams of eating a sweet, not the one presented to him from the window, the one that is yet to come.