Chef Luca Antonucci's recipe: Gluten-free Panettone for Christmas,

The panettone recipe proposed for First&Food readers by Chef Luca Antonucci, professor of advanced training and specialization courses at Cast Alimenti in Brescia, is aimed at people with celiac disease. Because they don't have to give up the iconic dessert of the Christmas tradition. But it is also perfect for closing holiday lunches with a tasty and highly digestible dessert.

In Italy almost 210.00 cases of pathological celiac disease. But according to research institutes this would be only the tip of the iceberg because people with celiac disease would be at least 600.000 but they still haven't discovered it. But if we count all the people in the world who consume food gluten free for health reasons or because you are convinced that eating gluten-free helps keep the body in excellent shape or even that it represents an excellent slimming cure, then the numbers become impressive, we reach 6 million people.

A phenomenon that has also partly developed due to the imitative effect of famous personalities such as Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga and tennis player Novak Djokovic who have declared that they have eliminated gluten from their diet

The recipe proposed this week to our readers by the Chef is dedicated to all of them, real sick people, sick people by conviction, but also non-sick people who have embraced the cause for sport, for their figure, because it's trendy. Luca Antonucci; a Christmas panettone to celebrate the holidays without renouncing the tradition of the dessert par excellence at the end of the year.

Antonucci, from Umbria, discovered the white art as a young man by attending the Professional Institute for Hotel and Catering (IPSSAR) in Assisi. He made his bones in the world of bread-making by first working in a famous pizzeria in the historic center of Perugia and then working in his brother's restaurant. The leavening processes intrigue and fascinate him irrepressibly. He reads, studies, learns and deepens all the principles and secrets of the art, the knowledge of alternative flours, ancient grains and the various bread-making methods.

The young man who was passionate about yeasts in the cut pizzeria made himself known and appreciated for his scientific nature to the point that in a short time they called him as a professor at the University of Flavors of Perugia in the courses of pastry chef, pizza chef, baker and cook.

Antonucci also becomes the face of the edition of the television format "Margherita and her Sisters" of the Gambero Rosso Sky Channel, authoritative professor at the Cast Alimenti of Brescia in advanced training and specialization courses and also at the Chef Academy of Terni and CNOSFAP (Don Bosco) of the Umbria Region.

In short, a real authority on pizzas and leavened desserts.

For two years now, solicited by many, he has created a format "The Laboratory of Luca Antonucci Chef", a series of amateur and professional courses where gluten-free is also addressed for a constantly increasing audience of interested and passionate .