Panettone Maximo: the one from the D'Antoni pastry shop triumphs in Rome

The best traditional panettone made in Rome or Lazio? It is that of Pasticceria D'Antoni since 1974″, born almost half a century ago by the D'Antoni brothers, who with their wives Clara and Lucia started an artisan pastry shop in Collatino, a peripheral area of ​​the capital, which I immediately encounter great success. Today it is a large and modern pastry shop and the baton has been taken up by the children who have significantly raised the bar of product quality. That's true – as Andrea recalls that last year their panettone was classified second in the competition that today saw them as the absolute winners.

Behind the D'Antoni pastry shop in the Best Traditional Panettone category were the Grué pastry shop (Rome), second place and winner last year in both categories, and Dolcemascolo (Frosinone) in third place. Fourth place for Luna (Rieti), and in fifth place, tied for the Patrizi pastry shop in Fiumicino and Vizio in Rome.

Pasticceria Vizio (Rome), on the other hand, won the Best Chocolate Panettone category, followed in second place by Grué (Rome) with its famous Gianduioso and by Max Pasticceria (Rome) in third place. To complete the enlarged podium the Patrizi pastry shop (Fiumicino) fourth and Officina Dolciaria Woods (Rome), fifth.

Two special prizes went to Max Pasticceria for Best Packaging and to Pasticceria Barberini for Best Digital Communication.

Pasticceria Vizio (Rome), on the other hand, won the Best Chocolate Panettone category, followed in second place by Grué (Rome) with its famous Gianduioso and by Max Pasticceria (Rome) in third place. To complete the enlarged podium the Patrizi pastry shop (Fiumicino) fourth and Officina Dolciaria Woods (Rome), fifth.

Two special prizes went to Max Pasticceria for Best Packaging and to Pasticceria Barberini for Best Digital Communication.

21 pastry chefs from Rome and Lazio took part in Panettone Maximo this year.

The panettones were submitted to the jury anonymously, strictly without labels or identification marks. Each panettone was numbered so as to be able to identify it, but neither the jury nor the respective authors knew this numbering, which was revealed only at the end of the vote. The panettone was cut and served to the jury on disposable saucers, in accordance with current safety standards. The tasting of all the jurors was followed by the immediate vote, with the expression of a value from 6 to 10. Each vote was followed by the sum of the votes. At the end of the voting of all the panettones, for each category, the winners were announced.

The jury was made up of 16 experts, 8 per category, including three pastry world champions, winners in 2015 in Lyon: Fabrizio Donatone, Francesco Boccia and Emmanuele Forcone. Again, among the "technicians", there were the Master Lievitista Attilio Servi, the pastry chef Angelo Di Masso, the best pastry chef in Asia 2019 for the "50Best" Fabrizio Fiorani, the pastry chef of the La Pergola restaurant, 3 * Michelin , Giuseppe Amato and the “landlord” and chef of the Settimo Giuseppe D'Alessio restaurant, of the Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese.

Among the experts in the trade press are the food and wine critic Luigi Cremona (Touring Club Guide), journalists Valeria Maffei (Il Pasticcere), Marco Lombardi (Gambero Rosso Channel and Il Messaggero), Vincenzo Pagano (Scatti di Gusto), Marina Betto (Luciano Pignataro Blog), Pamela Panebianco (Bittersweet), Annalisa Cavaleri, professor of food anthropology at the lULM and the food designer Nerina Di Nunzio (Food Confidential).

This year's edition was reduced to live streaming only, due to the restrictions imposed by the DPCM, but equally special, as the organizer Fabio Carnevali said. “Although very different from last year's, because it is deprived of the public and the pleasure of discovering the goodness of these desserts in person and choosing one's favourite. But we wanted to give a strong signal, not stopping, and following up on the first successful edition, to help the sector and not lose the beauty of seeing the best pastry shops in the region in comparison, which work according to the highest standards of excellence . My wish is that in the next edition we can return to normality, with the presence of the public and with the tasting tables, face to face with the pastry chefs.”