Where to go to taste the best bread of the year? In Frosinone to get to know the dark chocolate bread made by Roberta Pezzella, of Pezz de Pane. And to taste it best expression of bread and territory? You have to move in Sardinia in Oliena in the province of Nuoro where Mario Rubanu in his Tundu, a small family-run artisan bakery, he works to preserve and consolidate the ancient tradition of Pane Carasau.
And to check the art of Emerging Baker of the Year? We must move to Bojano in the province of Campobasso where Stefano Priolo, of the Casa Priolo Bakery has inherited and successfully carries on a family tradition that dates back to 1900.
It is the golden age of artisan bakeries and ovens. The pandemic has revived the passion for bread and baked goods in Italian homes and new ones have been opened throughout Italy
The best 50 have now been awarded by the Gambero Rosso Pane&Panettieri d'Italia 2022 Guide now in its third edition, they are the ones who have obtained the maximum score of the Three Loaves. Lombardy is at the top with 8 award-winning bakeries followed by Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Lazio with 6; Sicily with 4; Puglia with 3; Tuscany, and Campania with 2; Valle d'Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Marche, Basilicata and Sardinia with 1.
The Guide created in collaboration with Petra-Molino Quaglia describes a scenario of absolute respect for the sector: the birth of widespread ovens, ovens with virtual shops, latest generation bakeries with attached bistros and cafeterias. “Renewed attention around bread, the new frontier of taste. A growth that has been possible thanks to the contribution of many professionals who, forced by circumstances to interrupt or in any case drastically reduce activities, have used their energies on bread-making. In fact, parallel laboratories have been created which have had a dual function: on the one hand, they have saved jobs, on the other, they have opened up new perspectives, stimulating the development of the sector in which young people are increasingly protagonists. Bread is increasingly becoming a product to be protected with rigorous attention to the choice of raw materials, from flour to yeast: an increasingly ethical and sustainable bread, as we would like the future towards which we are moving to be”.
Also for this third edition of the Pane & Panettieri 2022 guide, Gambero Rosso was supported by Petra-Molino Quaglia, a leading company in the production of high quality soft wheat flour. A partnership that continues with the new professional course of the Gambero Rosso Academy "Professione Panettiere" designed to train future baking professionals, capable of operating both in the field of artisanal and industrial production at the Gambero Rosso Academy offices in Turin (starting 6 September) and Rome (starting 25 October).
