Panettone Yes, Panettone No. That’s the dilemma on tables in the UK, a bit behind compared to Italian tables, where the main dilemma is whether you belong to Team Candied Fruit and Raisins or Team Chocolate. In this all-Italian debate (not to mention the historic Panettone vs Pandoro match), our friends from across the Channel have jumped into the fray, led by Food Editor Tony Turnbull, taking aim at our already much-maligned Classic Panettone.
According to the famous Food Editor of The Times, Tony Turnbull, the fact that Panettone is gaining ground on English tables instead of the more traditional Christmas Pudding is not a good thing…
For the Food Editor, in fact, Panettone is too sweet, overcooked, and decidedly heavy to digest. “Enough with the Panettone,” he writes, “I suspect (and hope) that sales data don’t tell the whole story. For starters, many people still make Christmas pudding, while no one makes their own Panettone at home; therefore, lovers of the old-style pudding aren’t accounted for. Also, we all know that the allure of Panettone, with its beautiful packaging, isn’t in eating it but in giving it away.” And he continues, adding to the dose: “Drinks together? Get a Panettone. Gift for a colleague? Get a Panettone. A thank-you to the dog-sitter? Get a Panettone. It’s like a big game of ‘pass-the-parcel’ where the goal is not to be left holding the package on Christmas Eve.”
Taking inspiration also from sales data released by the department store chain Selfridges, which show that for several years now, the English prefer to set their tables at Christmas with Italian Panettone rather than Christmas pudding, Tony Turnbull published a lengthy article to downplay the typical Italian sweet.
However, in addition to the outburst and literal jumping on the chair by our greatest Food Editors, against Turnbull’s words, the Maestro of Italian Pastry, Iginio Massari, thundered unequivocally. With locales in major Italian cities like Milan, Verona, and Florence, and numerous pop-up stores, in addition to having won over 300 awards and recognitions nationally and internationally, Pasticceria Veneto (Brescia) has also received the highest recognition of 3 cakes in the Gambero Rosso Pasticceri & pasticcerie Guide. Iginio Massari, taking it easy, dismissed the Food Editor with these words, “He wrote nonsense. Is Panettone better as a gift than as a dessert? Either the journalist who wrote it is trying to sell more copies by generating controversy, or he doesn’t have a palate accustomed to more complex preparations.” And if the Maestro says so…
Ig – @fairness_mag
