Who said that panettone is only a Milanese specialty? If there are no doubts about the origin of the dessert, it is however equally true that by now there are few such national-popular dishes, with a rich and convincing tradition from North to South. The geographical origins of the 25 finalists of Panettone Day 2019, the maxi national competition dedicated to panettone artisans from all over Italy, the winner of which will be announced on 12 September in an evening event at the Carlo Cracco restaurant in Milan. Entries were open until 14 June, after which a jury headed by the king of Italian pastry chefs, Iginio Massari (interviewed by First&Food) decreed the 15 finalists for the best traditional panettone category, the 5 for the best sweet creative panettone and the 5 for the best Ruby chocolate panettone.
Among the 15 finalists of the general award, only two are real Milanese: Antonio Di Bari of the social cooperative at Cascine, of San Giuliano Milanese, and Antonio Amati of the Vanilla Prelibata Gelateria of Legnano. Then two Piedmontese pop up, both from the province of Cuneo: Elio Mattiauda of Dolce Idea in Boves and Andrea Musso of Paradiso del Goloso in Alba. The “Nordic” lot is completed by two Venetians (Matteo Talpo of the bakery of the same name in Ospedaletto Euganeo, in the province of Padua, and the multi-winner of the latest editions Giovanni Bertolini, Casa del Dolce in San Bonifacio, Verona), the Piacenza Samuele Mazzocchi (Bakery Sinks of Borgonovo) and the Cremona Alessio Manfredini (El Furneer of Pandino). After that, there's a lot of Center-South, with 7 out of 15 candidates coming from Latina downwards. Just from Latina are Tiziana Caruso, of the homonymous pastry shop in Minturno, and Ferdinando Tammetta, of the homonymous bakery in Fondi, while from the nearby province of Frosinone there is Alessandro Luccero, Dolce Stil Novo pastry shop in Cassino.
Ben two Campania panettone artists, to be precise from Caserta: Gennaro Cavallaccio (Bakery of the same name, from Trentola Ducenta) and Vito Freda from Bar Lello in Cellole. From the deep South are instead the Catanian Santo Giarrusso of the Pasubio pastry shop in Catania and Mario Caretto, of the homonymous pastry shop in Surbo, in the province of Lecce. Two are also from Catania among the five finalists of the Creative Dolce award: Francesco Cantarella from Biancavilla and Andrea Galvagno from Stark's Cafè. They will face it, in a virtual remote Catania-Bergamo derby, with two Orobic pastry chefs, Mattia Premoli from Primula di Treviglio and Matteo Frigeni from Capriccio 84 in Presezzo. Fifth "inconvenient" is the Vicentine Giancarlo Maistrello, from Villaverla.
There is a Sicilian, still from the province of Catania, also among the finalists of the award dedicated to chocolate panettone, which is being awarded this year for the first time: she is Barbara Veronica Braghero, Storie di un chicco di grano, in Fiumefreddo. She will face Monica Poloni from Bergamo, Domenico Napoleone from Rieti, Maurizio Orsi from Lecco, and Piero Bertoli from Vercelli. If Italy is therefore well represented (11 candidates out of 25 are from the Centre-South, of which 4 only from Catania and its province), in the lot of 25 finalists on the other hand, there is a lack of women's quotas to complain about: only three finalists, only one for the general prize. Only once, in 2015, has a woman won (Monica Poloni, still in the running in this edition). Southern Italy is also the protagonist in the 2018 edition: the reigning champion in the traditional event is Raffaele Romani from Avellino.
