With the arrival of autumn, the air of Christmas festivities is already in the air and Panettone is already being thought of, even if by now this dessert is clearing customs from the New Year's holiday period to prolong its consumption throughout the year.
The games were opened by FIPGC, the International Federation of Pastry, Ice Cream and Chocolate, accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the promotion of our pastry art and Made in Italy in the world, which announced the Panettone World Championship "The best Panettone of the world ”.
300 competitors entered the competition who were judged by a jury made up of 10 World Champions: Roberto Lestani, President, owner of Pasticceria in Udine, 2004 world champion of pastry, Matteo Cutolo of Pasticceria Generoso in Torre del Greco, 2017 world champion , Francesco Luni, Paduan, 2020 champion, , Enrico Casarano from the Dulce di Casarano (LE) pastry shop, 2017 champion, Claudia Mosca, Paolo Molinari, Gianluca Cecere, Luca Borgioli, Pasquale Pesce and Ruggiero Carli.
The winners for the four categories (Classic - Innovative - Decorated - Gluten Free). were announced during an event at the Palazzo Rospigliosi Congress Centre.
The best panettone in the world for the "Classic" category went to Fabio Albanesi, owner of the Pregiata Forneria Albanesi in Via Tiberina, in Fiano Romano (RM). He says of himself: “Romano, born in 1966, second of 4 children. I put my hands in the dough for the first time at the age of seven, when I ran away from school to work in a nearby bakery. I did it to help out around the house, due to the precarious economic situation. I did it knowing that for me bread was not just the product of a job, but a form of art”. And the times proved him right.
His panettone is in a certain sense the summation of his long research experience in the field of leavened products and "of the love - he is keen to specify - that has guided me throughout my life". In fact, the result of many years of studies of spontaneous fermentations convinced the judges. Specifically, his mother yeast was born after long experiments on the last "tripling" of the yeast in freshly milked raw milk in order to "discharge all its acidity, obtaining maximum fermentation in the dough. We put a high-level Italian butter that has won many awards and we transformed it into duck butter to obtain the butter concentrate. We then selected a raw organic honey given by a trusted beekeeper And since I am a candier - he adds - I candied not only the orange peel but the whole orange in order to take all the pulp and obtain the complete properties of the orange". Finally, Albanesi underlines that extreme attention has been paid to the components: royal jelly and fresh cream, yolks from fresh eggs strictly free-range without feed containing antibiotics. No wonder at this point that the name given to the panettone is Oro Lievitato", a registered trademark with a dedication that still reports the story of his life: "to "Bianca" and "Vincenzo", the first is my mother who always believed in me, the second is the name of my wife's father who was like a father to me”.
The Award for the "Decorated Panettone" section went to Flavia Garreffa, a young cake designer from Perugia.
Luca Porretto won the "Innovative Panettone" section with a panettone with a red heart inspired by trifle. Pastry chef since 2005 when, after obtaining his diploma in accountancy, he decided to devote himself to the family business, he developed a great passion for cakes, and in particular for scenographic ones with a more creative touch and special effects. Among his creations a scenic cake of 2,80 meters, composed of three aquariums in the upper part and a fire in the central part, so as to make it seem that the top five floors were suspended and supported only by the fire created for the Gran Galà del Cake Design from Terracina and innovative throughout the year, the Panettone Matryoshka, which received the Honorable Mention King Panettone 2017.
Finally, the prize for the best panettone in the “Gluten Free” section went to the Sacromonte Srl company in the person of Paolo Molinari, a pastry chef who has been exporting his products even to Japan for years.
The art of haute patisserie, which has seen a notable expansion in recent years, has attracted the attention of the new generations, and the International Federation of Pastry, Ice Cream, Chocolate, has as its focus the dissemination and cognitive activity also within the professional schools of the sector.
The challenges put the pastry chefs' skills, coordination, technique and imagination to the test, under the observation of the jury which issues its own assessment, based on the entire processing flow, from elaboration to the end of its work.
