Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

22 October 2023

Ettore Boiardi - entrepreneur

Emilian immigrant who founded canned pasta brand

Boiardi wowed diners with his signature pasta sauce
Boiardi wowed diners with
his signature pasta sauce
Ettore Boiardi, the former New York chef whose name lives on in the Chef Boyardee canned pasta products brand, was born on this day in 1897 in Piacenza, now part of the Emilia-Romagna region.

Boiardi, whose culinary skills first gained popularity when he was working in the kitchens of the iconic Plaza Hotel in New York, hit upon the idea of selling cook-at-home Italian food after opening his first restaurant while still in his 20s.

He and his brother, Paolo, built a company that employed 5,000 staff and filled 250,000 cans per day at its peak, making the Chef Boyardee brand a familiar sight in grocery stores across America. 

They eventually sold the business for $6 million dollars in 1948 but the Chef Boyardee brand never went away. Today, Chef Boyardee products, which still carry Ettore Boiardi’s image on their packaging, are made and marketed by Chicago-based Conagra Brands.

Ettore and Paolo grew up in Piacenza.  Their parents, Giuseppe and Maria, inspired them to be interested in food from an early age and Ettore was working in a local restaurant, La Croce Bianca, by the time he was 11. Although his tasks were limited to peeling potatoes, emptying waste bins and other menial duties, he performed them while observing how the head chef created dishes to serve to his customers.

Like many young Italians of his time, Ettore believed he would need to go abroad if he was to make something of his life. As a teenager, he made his way to Paris and London, taking work where he could to gain experience. 

Ettore (centre) with brothers Mario (left) and Paolo pictured at their factory in Milton
Ettore (centre) with brothers Mario (left) and
Paolo pictured at their factory in Milton
Paolo, meanwhile, had emigrated to New York, his waiting skills enabling him to climb quickly to the role of Maître d’hôtel at the Plaza. Ettore managed to join him there in 1914 after crossing the Atlantic on a French-registered ship, La Lorraine, and with his brother’s help became a sous chef in the hotel’s kitchen. Allowed to cook some of the Emilian recipes he knew from home, Ettore quickly acquired a following among the hotel’s well-heeled clients.

Indeed, such was his popularity that word quickly spread about his culinary talents and he enjoyed a meteoric rise. Within a year of disembarking at Ellis Island, he had been hired as head chef by the Barbetta restaurant on 46th Street and was soon also headhunted by the exclusive Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia.

It was there, at the age of just 17, that Boiardi is said to have been put in charge of catering at the wedding reception of the US President, Woodrow Wilson, and his second wife, Edith. Wilson was so impressed he asked Boiardi to supervise a homecoming meal for 2,000 soldiers returning from service in World War One.

An offer to be head of the kitchen at the prestigious Hotel Winton took him next to Cleveland, Ohio, where he met and married his wife, Helen, who encouraged him to open his own restaurant, the Giardino d’Italia, in 1926.  It was something of a gamble. While Italian restaurants were rapidly gaining popularity in the cities of the east and west coasts, there were still comparatively few inland.

Ettore's image still figures on the packaging labels of Chef Boyardee products today
Ettore's image still figures on the packaging
labels of Chef Boyardee products today
Yet the rarity factor worked in Boiardi’s favour. Word soon spread among Cleveland diners that the young chef’s signature sauce, served with spaghetti and sprinkled with grated hard cheese, was something special. Not only did the Giardino d’Italia frequently have queues of people waiting for a table, its customers, once they had tried the sauce, began asking for an extra portion to take home. 

Boiardi obliged by filling sterilised milk bottles with the sauce. This was noticed by two of his regular customers, Maurice and Eva Weiner, who were the owners of a nationwide chain of grocery stores. They suggested he should consider canning the sauce, which they could sell in their shops.

So it was that Helen and Ettore - now known by his anglicised name of Hector - were joined by Paolo and another brother, Mario, in launching the Chef Boiardi Food Company, in 1928, selling the sauce together with packs of spaghetti and tubs of grated parmesan cheese as a ready-to-heat meal kit.

In time, the name was changed to Chef Boyardee, which the brothers reasoned wa easier for Americans to pronounce, and production shifted to a bigger plant in Milton, Pennsylvania, which Boairdi chose for its fertile soil so that he could use locally-produced tomatoes, the key ingredient of his sauces, which eventually required him to produced 20,000 tons every year.

The Second World War created problems for the company, despite being handed a contract to produce ration packs for American servicemen. By the end of the war, maintaining 24-hour production and employing 5,000 staff in their factories became too much for the brothers, who decided to sell up to American Home Foods.

By the time Ettore died in 1985, at the age of 87, Chef Boyardee lines were grossing $500 million a year as one of the best-known tinned pasta brands in America.

The Palazzo Comunale in Piacenza, flanked by Francesco Mochi's equestrian statues
The Palazzo Comunale in Piacenza, flanked by
Francesco Mochi's equestrian statues 
Travel tip:

Piacenza, where Ettore Boiardi was born, is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The main square in Piacenza is named Piazza Cavalli because of its two bronze equestrian monuments featuring Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma and his son Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma, who succeeded him. The statues are masterpieces by the sculptor Francesco Mochi.  The square is dominated by the Palazzo Comunale, also known as il Gotico, was built in 1281 as the town hall. With its pink marble and brick facade, notable for its five arcades, it is an excellent example of civil architecture in Lombard Gothic style.  The city is situated between the River Po and the Apennines, between Bologna and Milan. It has many fine churches and old palaces. Piacenza Cathedral was built in 1122 and is a good example of northern Italian Romanesque architecture.

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is one of many food products from Emilia-Romagna
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is one of many
food products from Emilia-Romagna
Travel tip: 

The Emilia-Romagna region is widely regarded as one of the food capitals of  Europe. Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, balsamic vinegar from Modena and Prosciutto di Parma cured ham all originated in Emilia-Romagna, while ragù bolognese meat sauce originates in the region capital of Bologna, although it would be served with tagliatelle rather than spaghetti in Italy. The stuffed pasta dish tortellini in brodo - cushions of pasta filled with mortadella, prosciutto and pork loin served in a clear chicken broth - is another local speciality.  Historically, it was the cities of Emilia - Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena and Ferrara - whose cuisines were dominated by pork and pork products, although the whole region is renowned as a meat-eater’s paradise. 

Also on this day:

1885: The birth of tenor Giovanni Martinelli

1946: The birth of singer Roberto Loreti

1965: The birth of actress Valeria Golino

1967: The birth of conductor Salvatore Di Vittorio

1968: Soave wine awarded DOC status


Home





19 March 2023

Festa del Papà - Father’s Day

Italian celebration this year coincides with Mothering Sunday in UK

While today marks Mothering Sunday - or Mother’s Day - in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the Italian tradition is that celebrations on this day in the religious calendar are for Father’s Day.

La Festa del Papà in Italy owes its history to La Festa di San Giuseppe - St Joseph’s Day - the annual celebration that has been held since the Middle Ages to recognise the role of Joseph, the husband of Mary, as the legal if not the biological father of Jesus Christ.

In Catholic tradition, Saint Joseph is the embodiment of the ideal father, a strong, pious character perfectly suited to fulfil his role as protector of and provider for his family. 

For many years, the Festa di San Giuseppe - which always falls on March 19, regardless of whether it is a weekday or a weekend - remained a largely religious celebration. But, thanks to the growth of commercialism around family celebration days, it has taken a lead from Father’s Days around the world, and in particular the United States, and expanded into something bigger.

So nowadays, in common with Father’s Days around the world, La Festa del Papà is an occasion for children to show their appreciation and affection for their own fathers by making cards and giving treats and gifts.

Schools will often devote time in the week leading to March 19 by setting aside craft lesson time to making cards and gifts, with students encouraged to fill the card with their own verses.

And naturally, being Italy, gifts often take the form of food, with a number of different cakes and pastries becoming traditional on Father’s Day.

An example of Zeppole di San Giuseppe, one of Italy's traditional Father's Day treats
An example of Zeppole di San Giuseppe, one of
Italy's traditional Father's Day treats
This is thought to originate in a story in the Gospel of St Matthew in which Joseph and Mary were visited by an angel and warned to flee to Egypt so that their baby son would be kept out of the clutches of King Herod.

When they arrived, Joseph is said to have helped support the family by making and selling sweet pancakes.

The classic Italian Father’s Day pastries are Bignè di San Giuseppe, fried cream puffs filled with custard and dusted in icing sugar. Although Bignè di San Giuseppe are available throughout Italy all year round, they are made in particular quantities around Father’s Day.

In the south of Italy, the equivalent is the Zeppole di San Giuseppe, a similar concoction to Bignè, made with puff pastry, custard and icing sugar, topped with a glazed cherry.

A recipe for these zeppole appeared in Cucina teorico-pratica, a 19th century cookery guide compiled by Ippolito Cavalcanti, a food-loving aristocrat who went under the title Duke of Buonvicino, first published in 1837 and still being reprinted today. The book is considered something of a bible of Neapolitan cuisine.

In Sicily, meanwhile, the Sfincia di San Giuseppe is filled with sweet ricotta, candied fruit and chopped pistachio nuts, while shops in the north of Italy might have Ravioli di San Giuseppe - ravioli made with shortcrust pastry and filled with jam.

The Festa di San Giuseppe in Sicily is also celebrated in some households with the preparation of a soup called maccu di San Giuseppe, made with crushed fava beans, also known as broad beans.

Another part of the gift-giving element of the Festa del Papà is thought to come from Saint Joseph’s role as the patron saint of carpenters. Originally, wooden toys and trinkets were exchanged between all relatives on Festa di San Giuseppe, the practice evolving into one in which children gave wooden gifts to their father. 

An overhead view of Zaha Hadid's extraordinarily  futuristic Stazione Napoli-Afragola
An overhead view of Zaha Hadid's extraordinarily 
futuristic Stazione Napoli-Afragola 
Travel tip:

Ippolito Cavalcanti, the aristocratic gourmet who described Zeppole di San Giuseppe in his cookery guide Cucina teorico-pratica, was born in Afragola, a city today of almost 65,000 people but subsumed into the sprawl of greater Naples. Situated around 10km (6 miles) northeast from Piazza del Plebiscito, Afragola’s history is thought to date back to around 300BC when it was settled by a tribe called the Samnites, although remains dated as of Bronze Age vintage, thought to have been buried in an eruption of Vesuvius, were found in 2005.  Today’s Afragola, sadly, is an area of social problems, high unemployment and high crime rate, yet it is home to one of Italy’s most futuristic railway stations, the extraordinary Napoli-Afragola station designed by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid and opened in 2017 for a new high speed line from northern to southern Italy.

Iginio Massari's Pasticceria Veneto is consistently recognised as one of Italy's best pastry shops
Iginio Massari's Pasticceria Veneto is consistently
recognised as one of Italy's best pastry shops
Travel tip:

The best pastry shop in all Italy - and there is plenty of competition - is generally reckoned to be the multiple award-winning Pasticceria Veneto in Via Salvo D'Acquisto in the northern city of Brescia. Opened in 1971 by the Brescia-born pastry chef Iginio Massari, Pasticceria Veneto has dominated the pasticcerie section of the annual Gambero Rosso awards since 2011, receiving the coveted Tre Torte mark from the food magazine every year.  The store, often described as a pastry laboratory rather than simply a bakery thanks to 80-year-old Massari’s constant innovation, has been stocking a number of treats in anticipation of Father’s Day. The chef’s own creation for the occasion is a caramelized millefeuille.


Also on this day:

1661: The birth of musician Francesco Gasparini

1816: The death of physician and businessman Filippo Mazzei

1914: The death of seismologist Guiseppe Mercalli

1923: The birth of cartoonist Benito Jacovitti

1943: The birth of technocrat PM Mario Monti


Home



25 December 2022

Panettone and pandoro - festive treats

Which can claim the oldest Christmas tradition?

Panettone is served as a Christmas treat by families not just in Italy but all over the world
Panettone is served as a Christmas treat by families
not just in Italy but all over the world
The festive treats tucked into by Italian families on Christmas Day almost always include a wedge or slice of panettone, the fluffy sweet bread with the familiar dome shape that sells in tens of millions at this time of year.

In little more than 100 years since it was first produced commercially on a large scale, panettone has gained such popularity that it has become readily available in food outlets on almost every continent.

It is rare to find a supermarket in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, or in most western European countries, which does not have panettone jostling for shelf space with indigenous Christmas specialities.

Nowadays, panettone is finding increasing competition from another Italian sweet bread frequently seen on Christmas tables, its tall star-shaped rival, pandoro.  

A recent Twitter poll conducted by the website thelocal.it found that panettone was still the preferred choice of about two thirds of participants, but pandoro’s popularity is almost certainly on the rise.

Bauli is one of the oldest brands of  the classic panettone bread
Bauli is one of the oldest brands of 
the classic panettone bread
But which of them has the more authentic historical claim to be Italy’s true Christmas cake?

One story in Italian folklore claims that panettone was served at a lavish, 12-course Christmas Eve banquet thrown in the late 15th century by Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, but only after the dessert made by the Duke’s head pastry chef, had accidentally been burned. 

A young kitchen assistant called Toni is said to have saved the day by adding raisins and orange peel to some dough left over from the original dessert to fashion an impromptu cake. The Duke and his guests are said to have enjoyed the cake so much they asked the pastry chef what it was called, to which he replied ‘Pane di Toni’ - Tony’s bread.

There is no way of knowing whether that story is authentic. The earliest actual record of a sweet bread resembling panettone is that which appeared in a register of expenses of the Borromeo college of Pavia in 1599.

The entry for December 23 of that year includes the costs for five pounds of butter, two pounds of raisins and three ounces of spices for the baker to make 13 loaves to be given to college students on Christmas Day.

Large scale manufacture of panettone began in Milan in the early part of the 20th century. Baker Angelo Motta was the first to set up a production facility for the bread, creating its characteristic dome shape by making the dough rise three times in a 20-hour period.

Pandoro is often sliced and dusted with icing sugar for the Christmas table
Pandoro is often sliced and dusted with
icing sugar for the Christmas table 
Pandoro is similarly thought to date back to the 15th century, when Venetian bakers are said to have dusted cone-shaped loaves with real gold for their wealthy clients, hence the name pan d’oro - bread of gold - although others believe the name derives from the golden colour obtained by adding egg to the dough.

The pandoro made today, though, originates in Verona and is thought to have evolved from a traditional Veronese Christmas cake called nadalin, invented in the 13th century to celebrate the first Christmas in the city under the rule of the Scala family. 

Nadalin was a flat cake with a crust of granulated sugar, marsala wine, almonds and pine nuts, but its star shape, said to represent the comet that guided the Magi to Bethlehem, is thought to have been the inspiration for the shape of pandoro.

Industrial-scale production of pandoro began in Verona 1894 in a factory begun by entrepreneur Domenico Melegatti.

Both panettone and pandoro are sold today as Christmas specialities. Pandoro generally comes with icing sugar to sprinkle over the cone before serving. A popular way to serve pandoro is to slice the bread horizontally and arrange the star-shaped slices so that they resemble the shape of a Christmas tree.

The Roman amphitheatre in Verona is one of  the city'a many tourist attractions
The Roman amphitheatre in Verona is one of 
the city'a many tourist attractions
Travel tip:

Verona, the traditional home of pandoro, is the third largest city in northeast  Italy, with a population across its whole urban area of more than 700,000. It has a wealth of tourist attractions, of which the Roman amphitheatre known the world over as L’Arena di Verona is just one. The city was also the setting for three plays by Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Taming of the Shrew - although it is unknown whether the English playwright ever actually set foot in the city.  Nonetheless, tourists flock to visit a 13th century house in Verona where Juliet is said to have lived, even though there is no evidence that Juliet and Romeo actually existed and the balcony said to have inspired Shakespeare’s imagination was not added until the early 20th century.

The beautiful Piazza Ducale in Vigevano, as seen from the Castello Sforzesco
The beautiful Piazza Ducale in Vigevano, as
seen from the Castello Sforzesco
Travel tip:

The banquet thrown by Ludovico il Moro, who was a member of the Sforza family, quite likely took place at the Castello Sforzesco in Vigevano, a Lombard fortress developed by the Visconti family and rebuilt between 1492–94 for Ludovico, who transformed the fortification into a rich noble residence. Leonardo da Vinci was often his guest at Vigevano, as was the architect Donato Bramante, who designed the tower that watches over the beautiful rectangular Piazza Ducale, which was completed in 1493 as the forecourt to the castle.  The Peroni Brewery was founded by Giovanni Peroni in Vigevano in 1846.

Also on this day:

800: Charlemagne, King of the Franks and the Lombards, crowned Holy Roman Emperor

1874: The birth of soprano Lina Cavalieri

1988: The birth of singer-songwriter Marco Mengoni

Natale - Christmas Day


Home



30 September 2020

Massimo Bottura - chef and food activist

Leading restaurateur who set up project to feed hungry

Massimo Bottura
Massimo Bottura is seen as one of
the world's best chefs
The chef and restaurateur Massimo Bottura, whose Osteria Francescana in his hometown of Modena has twice been named as the world’s best restaurant, was born on this day in 1962.

Bottura is also the founder, in partnership with his American-born wife, the former actress and artist Lara Gilmore, of Food for Soul, a non-profit organisation that sets out to combat waste and feed the hungry through a network of refectories in major cities around the world.

The Food for Soul project was launched in 2015 with a refettorio in Greco, a poor district of northern Milan, and has expanded to the extent that it now numbers seven similar dining rooms for the hungry and homeless, in London, Paris and Rio de Janeiro as well as at three other locations in Italy.

As a young man, Bottura’s passions were food and football. He drew inspiration from the cooking of his mother and grandmothers in his dream of being a chef but envisioned a career as a footballer first, believing he had the talent to play professionally.

Lara Gilmore and Massimo Bottura met in New York in the last 1980s
Lara Gilmore and Massimo Bottura met in
New York in the last 1980s
His father, a successful businessman, insisted he followed a different path, and Bottura enrolled instead to study law at university.  In 1986, however, before he had completed his degree, he made the bold decision to buy a dilapidated roadside trattoria on the outskirts of Modena, determined that if one of his dreams had been dashed, the other would not suffer the same fate.

He worked round the clock to restore the building and a week later his first restaurant, Trattoria del Campazzo, opened for business.  Encouraged by his mother, who argued with his father on his behalf, he was determined to make a success of it.

Bottura’s horizons were broadened by a surprise visit to Trattoria del Campazzo by Alain Ducasse, head chef of Le Louis XV, the restaurant at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo. Ducasse invited him to the kitchen at Le Louis XV, which is where effectively he had his apprenticeship.

Bottura's restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena has twice been named best in the world
Bottura's restaurant Osteria Francescana in
Modena has twice been named best in the world
He had met Lara while he was working in kitchens in New York in the late 1980s and she was an actress in experimental theatre.  He returned to pursue his education under Ducasse but they stayed in touch and in 1993 he invited her to Modena, to help him fulfil his ambition to open a new restaurant that combined food with contemporary art and design.

The culmination of their joint enterprise was the Osteria Francescana, on the corner of Via Stella and Via delle Rose in the centre of Modena. It opened on 19 March, 1995.  Bottura proposed to Lara the same day.

Bottura’s cooking took traditional Italian dishes and gave them a modern twist with a heavy accent on experimentation. At first, he struggled to win over local diners but had something of a lucky break when a renowned Italian food critic happened on the restaurant by chance in 2001 and gave the osteria a rave review.  It sparked a new wave of interest and within a year he had been awarded his first Michelin star.

The Osteria Francescana, which even in normal times serves only 28 guests at lunch and dinner, now has three stars and was named as one of the top three in the World’s Best Restaurants - a list compiled annually by the UK media company William Reed Business Media - for six consecutive years between 2013 and 2018, taking first place in 2016 and 2018.

Bottura launched a project to feed the hungry and homeless
Bottura launched a project to
feed the hungry and homeless
Bottura did not open another restaurant until Francescana 58, a more informal brasserie launched in Modena in 2011, in Via Vignolese. He moved outside Italy for the first time in 2014 with Ristorante Italia di Massimo Bottura in Istanbul. Subsequent ventures include restaurants in Florence, Dubai and Beverly Hills.

The idea behind Food for Soul developed during Expo 2015 in Milan, at which Bottura was invited to cook. The scale of the event within a city not without social problems set him thinking both about food wastage and social vulnerability, and he decided to take unused produce from Expo’s pavilions to create meals for the city's most vulnerable population. Rather than serve up those meals in the manner of a traditional soup kitchen, Bottura wanted to create a setting in which the diners could feel at least momentarily sheltered from the reality of their everyday lives, connecting with others at long refectory tables.

The first refettorio - the Refettorio Ambrosiano - opened in Piazza Greco in a disused concert theatre next to the parish church of San Martino in Greco. Under a giant mural of The Last Supper, seated at 14 refectory tables, each crafted and donated by a celebrated Italian designer, guests are served a three-course menu, nowadays made from food donated by local supermarkets.

In addition to the seven locations already established, Bottura has plans to open more in Mexico, California, New York and Quebec.  He regularly invites renowned chefs to cook for the project and they willingly oblige, in many cases serving the food themselves and sitting to talk to diners. 

Modena's grand baroque Ducal Palace is one of the city's major attractions for visitors
 Modena's grand baroque Ducal Palace is one of the city's
major attractions for visitors
Travel tip:

Modena is a city on the south side of the Po Valley in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It is known for its car industry, as Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani and Maserati have all been located there. The city is also well known for producing balsamic vinegar. Operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti and soprano Mirella Freni were both born in Modena.  One of the main sights is the huge, baroque Ducal Palace, designed for Francesco I by the architect, Luigi Bartolomeo Avanzini, who created a home for him that few European princes could match at the time. 

The imposing facade of  Modena's duomo
The imposing facade of 
Modena's duomo
Travel tip:

Dominating Piazza Grande, Modena’s 12th-century duomo - the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta e San Geminiano - is regarded as one of the finest products of the Romanesque period in Italy and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The portal of the west facade is supported by two lions created by the sculptor Wiligelmo, who also did the larger reliefs that run along the wall. Inside, the plain stone coffin of San Geminiano - the patron saint of Modena – sits under the choir. On his feast day, January 31, crowds come to see his coffin, and a market is held in the square.

Also on this day:

1530: The birth of physician Girolamo Mercuriale 

1863: The birth of ballerina Pierina Legnani

1885: The birth of Carabinieri general Angelo Cerica 

1964: The birth of model and actress Monica Bellucci


Home



2 September 2020

Andrea Illy – businessman and writer

Family dream was to make the best coffee in the world

Andrea Illy is the grandson of company founder Francesco Illy
Andrea Illy is the grandson of
company founder Francesco Illy
Andrea Illy, who is the chairman of coffee makers illycaffè, was born on this day in 1964 in Trieste, the capital city of the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

The grandson of the founder of illycaffè, Francesco Illy, Andrea represents the third generation of his family to lead the business. His father, Ernesto Illy, was chairman of the company between 1963 and 2004. His sister Anna and brothers Francesco and Riccardo - a former CEO now vice-president - Illy are on the board of directors.

Andrea graduated with a degree in Chemistry from the University of Trieste and went on to study at SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Harvard Business School and Singularity University in Silicon Valley.

He joined the family firm in 1990 as a supervisor of the quality control department. Inspired by Japanese business methods, Andrea started the Total Quality Programme, which established standards both for the company and the coffee industry in general.

He was appointed CEO of illycaffè in 1994 and chairman of the company in 2005.

He developed the Università del Caffè to spread the culture of coffee throughout the world. He established the retail side of the business at global level with 230 stores and started a new system of capsules for making coffee.

Francesco Illy's dream was to produce  the best coffee in the world
Francesco Illy's dream was to produce
 the best coffee in the world
His book, Il sogno del caffè (Coffee: The Dream) describes the family and company’s history and the pursuit of the dream of his grandfather, Francesco, to produce the best coffee in the world.

Andrea won the Businessman of the Year Award in Italy in 2004. He is the honorary Chairman of the Association for Science and Information on Coffee and the Chairman of the International Coffee Organisation’s Coffee Market Promotion and Development Committee.

Since 2013 Andrea has been chairman of the Fondazione Altagamma, a foundation for firms that are worldwide ambassadors for Italian living, and from the same year he has been part of the Board of Governors of the Bank of Italy for Trieste.

Married with three daughters, Andrea was named Cavaliere del Lavoro, a Knight of Industry, by the President of Italy in 2018.

Piazza Unità d'Italia is the focal point of the elegant port city of Trieste
Piazza Unità d'Italia is the focal point of the
elegant port city of Trieste
Travel tip:

The beautiful seaport of Trieste, where illycaffè was founded in 1933, officially became part of the Italian Republic in 1954. It lies towards the end of a narrow strip of land situated between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia and is just 30 kilometres north of Croatia. It has been disputed territory for thousands of years and throughout its history has been influenced by its location at the crossroads of the Latin, Slavic and Germanic cultures. The final border with Yugoslavia was settled in 1975 and this is now the present day border between Italy and Slovenia. Today, Trieste is a lively and cosmopolitan city and a major centre for trade and ship building.

Canal Grande in Trieste has many waterside bars and restaurants that are popular with visitors
Canal Grande in Trieste has many waterside bars and
restaurants that are popular with visitors 
Travel tip:

Trieste has many coffee houses that date back to the Hapsburg era, when the Austrians were in control of the seaport. Caffè Tommaseo, the oldest in the city, dates back to 1830 and is in Piazza Nicolo Tommaseo. When Irish writer James Joyce was living in Trieste, his favourite bar was Caffè Pirona in Largo della Barriera Vecchia. You could imagine yourself to be in Venice if you linger at a table outside one of the bars or restaurants at the side of Canal Grande, an inlet in the centre of Trieste with moorings for small crafts that is reminiscent of the Grand Canal.

Also on this day:

1753: The birth of Marie Josephine of Savoy, who became the titular Queen of France

1898: The birth of chocolatier Pietro Ferrero

1938: The birth of actor Giuliano Gemma


Home






22 August 2020

Giada De Laurentiis - TV chef

Food Network star who was born in Rome

Giada De Laurentiis trained as a  classical chef in Paris
Giada De Laurentiis trained as a 
classical chef in Paris
The TV presenter, chef, author and restaurateur Giada Pamela De Laurentiis was born in Rome on this day in 1970.

A classically-trained chef who learned her craft in Paris, she worked in the kitchens of a number of restaurants in Los Angeles before breaking into television. Since 2003 she has been a regular on the Food Network, the American cable channel.

Born into a theatre and movie background, De Laurentiis takes her name from her mother, the actress Veronica De Laurentiis, who is the daughter of producer Dino De Laurentiis and the actress Silvana Mangano.  Her father is the actor-producer Alex De Benedetti.

Giada spent her first seven years in Rome, where her mother still has a home near the Spanish Steps, but after her parents divorced she and her sisters moved to Los Angeles.

Her grandfather had a home in Hollywood and had by then become a restaurateur and Giada has memories of spending time in the kitchen of his DDL Foodshow delicatessen and restaurant in Los Angeles, where she acquired her interest in cooking.

Her own entry into the catering business came via a roundabout route.  After high school, she went to the University of California to study social anthropology, emerging with a bachelor’s degree.

Giada made her break into television in 2003
Giada made her break into
television in 2003
Yet her passion for cooking was undimmed and she felt she would risk being unfulfilled if she did not explore her potential. She enrolled at the world renowned Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris, obtaining Le Grand Diplome, awarded for a combination of classic cooking and patisserie skills. 

Back in Los Angeles, she found work in the kitchen of the Ritz Carlton before landing a chef’s job at Spago in Beverly Hills, where she came to know many celebrity clients.  The contacts she made persuaded her in 1988 to launch her own private catering company, GDL Foods.

Her famous surname attracted attention and indirectly led to an approach from the Food Network, one of whose executives had been intrigued by her background and show business connections after reading a magazine profile and suggested she have a go at presenting a show.

When she was subsequently given her own series, Everyday Italian, the network at first received negative feedback from viewers, who noted Giada's glamorous appearance and accused the TV company of hiring a model or actress who was pretending to be a chef.

Giada's grandfather is the movie giant Dino De Laurentiis
Giada's grandfather is the movie
giant Dino De Laurentiis
Having felt uncomfortable at first with appearing on camera, De Laurentiis might have walked away but she overcame her misgivings and persevered.  Since then, Everyday Italian has become one of the Food Network’s most popular shows and Giada has become one of its most recognisable faces, presenting several other shows and appearing as a guest on many others.

She has also written several cookery books, given her signature to a number of spin-off products and opened two restaurants in Las Vegas, one within The Cromwell casino complex called GIADA, as well as Pronto by Giada, inside Caesar’s Palace. A third restaurant, Italian by Giada, opened within the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore.

De Laurentiis was married for 11 years to fashion designer Todd Thompson but they divorced in 2015. She has a daughter, Jade, who has appeared in some of her TV shows.

She regularly returns to her roots in Rome, where her mother, Veronica, still lives in a house close to the Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti, better known as the Spanish Steps.

The pretty Via Margutta was one of the most fashionable streets in Rome
The pretty Via Margutta was one of the
most fashionable streets in Rome
Travel tip:

Giada De Laurentiis’s mother, Veronica, has a house in the area around Via Margutta, a narrow street situated between Piazza di Spagna and Piazza del Popolo in the Campo Marzio area of Rome.  Originally home to craft workshops and stables, it now hosts many art galleries and fashionable restaurants, having become popular after it was depicted in the 1953 film Roman Holiday, in which Gregory Peck’s character was said to have an apartment in Via Margutta. It became an exclusive neighborhood popular with artists and figures from the movie industry, including actress Giuletta Masina, director Federico Fellini and writers Renato Guttuso and Marina Punturieri.

The Spanish Steps is one of Rome's favourite landmarks
The Spanish Steps is one of
Rome's favourite landmarks
Travel tip:

The Piazza Trinità dei Monti is a square in central Rome adjoining the Renaissance church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti, at the top of the Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti, better known as the Spanish Steps. During Springtime, just before the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, April 21, part of the steps are covered by pots of azaleas. Recently, the Spanish Steps have included a small cut-flower market. The steps are not a place for eating lunch, the consuming of food there being forbidden by Roman urban regulations, but they are usually crowded with people.

Also on this day:

1599: The death of composer Luca Marenzio, an influence on Monteverdi

1849: Venice fell victim to the first air raid in history when attacking Austrian forces attached bombs to unmanned balloons

1913: The birth of nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo, who defected to the Soviet Union after working in the United States

1914: The death of progressive priest Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi


Home



29 June 2020

Federico Peliti - catering entrepreneur and photographer

Italian became important figure in British Colonial India


Federico Peliti, pictured in traditional Indian headdress
Federico Peliti, pictured in traditional
Indian headdress
Federico Peliti, whose skills as a chef and pastry-maker led him to spend a large part of his life in India under British colonial rule, was born on this day in 1844 in Carignano, a town in Piedmont about 20km (12 miles) south of Turin.

He was also an accomplished photographer and collections of his work made an important contribution to the documentary history of the early years of British rule in India.

The restaurant Peliti opened in Shimla, the so-called summer capital of the British Empire in India, became a favourite with colonial high society and was mentioned in the writings of Rudyard Kipling and others.

Peliti’s family hailed from Valganna, near Varese in Lombardy. They had mainly been surveyors and Peliti initially studied sculpture at the Accademia Albertina in Turin. 

He was diverted from a career in sculpture by the Third Italian War of Independence, in which he participated as a cavalryman in the 1st Nizza regiment of the Italian army. By chance, during his active service, he made friends with a group of confectioners and pastry-makers, who taught him some of their skills.

Armed with this new talent and in search of a job after leaving the army, Peliti entered a competition organised by Richard Bourke, the sixth Earl of Mayo and Viceroy of British India, to find a personal chef. Peliti won, moved to India in 1869 and settled in Calcutta. 

A postcard advertising Peliti's restaurant
in Calcutta. The building still stands today
Lord Mayo was assassinated three years later but Peliti stayed in Calcutta, teaming up with business partner Thomas O’Neill to form O'Neill & Peliti, a bakery in Bentinck Street. 

When the partnership broke up, Peliti moved to the more upmarket Chowringhee Road in 1875, and in 1881 opened a restaurant at Esplanade East which became popular among British high society.

In the same year he set up in Shimla, the so-called summer capital of British India, opening a cafe next to the Combermere bridge in Shimla, which had a terrace overlooking a valley and became very popular. Peliti built a grand home in nearby Mashobra, which he called Villa Carignano, where he lived with his wife, Judith, the daughter of a British-Indian government official.

As his reputation grew, Peliti was invited to cater for a lunch hosted by the Prince of Wales in Burma in 1891. 

He expanded his operations, establishing Peliti's Grand Hotel in Shimla and starting a company that canned food for export.

Peliti also trained other Italian confectioners, such as Angelo Firpo from Genoa, who set up another restaurant in Calcutta, and Felice Cornaglia, who took over his business in Bombay.

Peliti's Grand Hotel in Shimla was part of the Italian's business empire in India
Peliti's Grand Hotel in Shimla was part of the
Italian's business empire in India
British expats took to Peliti's restaurants in both Shimla and Calcutta and they became centres of society life. The author and journalist Rudyard Kipling, who was born in Bombay in 1865, immortalised Peliti's Shimla restaurant Regent House by referring to it in his short story The Phantom Rickshaw and his poem Divided Destinies. 

Peliti never returned to sculpture but channelled his creative talents in another direction through his interest in photography. Formally trained by the Turin photographer and instrument maker Felice Bardelli, Peliti was fascinated by the exotic and picturesque and his images of life in India at the time of British rule provide a valuable record.  Much of his collection is now housed at the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica - the Central Institute for Graphics - in Rome.

In 1902 Peliti decided to return to Italy, handing the management of his company to his sons, Edoardo and Federico, and moving back to Carignano, where he had a house decorated with frescoes by the painter Paolo Gaidano, a contemporary of Peliti’s from the nearby town of Poirino.  Peliti died in Carignano in 1914. 

Today, the name of Peliti’s lives on in Peliti’s Vermut, a vermouth manufactured in Turin which is based faithfully on the liqueur Federico Peliti produced for an official visit by the Prince of Wales, Edward VII, in 1877, using a blend of Indian spices, Piemontese flowers, absinthe and muscat wine.

Carignano's 18th-century Baroque cathedral built by Benedetto Alfieri
Carignano's 18th-century Baroque cathedral
built by Benedetto Alfieri
Travel tip:

Carignano is one of the oldest towns in Piedmont with a rich history, going back to the Bronze Age.  It was an important stopping-off point on a road built by the Romans between Turin and Carmagnola and archaeological finds such as Roman tombs, pottery, cobblestones and weapons have been discovered locally.  Carignano became one of the most important municipalities of Turin in the late 19th century thanks to the Bona wool mill.  In the centre of the town, there is an 18th-century Baroque cathedral dedicated to Saints Giovanni Battista and Remigio, designed by Benedetto Alfieri and decorated by Paolo Gaidano, which overlooks the town’s market square.

The Badia di San Gemolo
in Valganna, near Varese
Travel tip:

The municipality of Valganna, from which Peliti’s family moved to Carignano, is a few kilometres north of Varese in Lombardy, in the heart of the Italian lake district, surrounded by the picturesque countryside of the Parco delle cinque vette nature reserve.  The Maggiore and Lugano lakes are nearby. Visitors to Valganna are often drawn to the Badia di San Gemolo, a church and abbey complex dedicated to the memory of San Gemolo, the nephew of a bishop who died after being attacked by robbers nearby, whose remains are preserved in the abbey.

Also on this day:

















27 April 2020

Cesare Bianchi - head chef

From shores of Lake Como to London’s Café Royal


The Art Deco memorial in Hampstead Cemetery, built by Bianchi for his widow, Martha
The Art Deco memorial in Hampstead Cemetery,
built by Bianchi for his widow, Martha
Cesare Bianchi, who rose from humble beginnings to become head chef at London’s prestigious Café Royal in the 1930s, was born on this day in 1897 in Cernobbio, a village on Lake Como in northern Italy.

He moved to England when he was only 16, hoping to build a career in catering and soon found work doing odd jobs in a London kitchen. However, he had been in the city barely a year when the outbreak of the First World War meant he had to return to his homeland for national service.  In his case, it was with the Alpini, Italy’s mountain brigades, with whom he was an interpreter.

Eager to resume his career in England, once the war was over Cesare took a job at the Palace Hotel in Aberdeen.  It was there he met Martha Gall, the woman who would become his wife.

They were married in 1921 and Martha soon gave birth to their daughter, Patricia.  Ambitious, Cesare persuaded his wife to leave Scotland behind so that he could make another attempt to establish himself in London.

His culinary talents took him a long way as he worked his way up from modest beginnings to land a place in the kitchen at the Café Royal in Regent Street, which at the turn of the century had become one of the capital’s most fashionable restaurants, the place to be seen for society figures.

The Café Royal had a heady reputation but Bianchi was quite at home, soon winning many compliments for his culinary skills.  Ultimately, he was promoted to head chef. He and Martha and their daughter set up home in Hampstead, in Lawn Road.

Cesare Bianchi's position counted for nothing when he was declared an alien
Cesare Bianchi's position counted for
nothing when he was declared an alien
However, his life was turned upside down in 1936 when Martha died giving birth to their second child.  The baby, a boy given the name Robert, survived.  Martha was buried in Hampstead Cemetery, where Bianchi commissioned an enormous monument, an Art Deco extravagance topped with a Futurist angel, arms outstretched, between two columns and standing on a plinth bearing the name of Bianchi.

The grave, which now has Grade II listed status, is set in a triangular plot. Either side of the angel are two reliefs, one showing Cesare with Martha, who is cradling the baby she never lived to see, sitting on a park bench.  He had hoped one day that he would be buried alongside her.

Martha’s sister, Mary, helped Cesare bring up his children and he was able to return to work in Regent Street.

When peace in Europe was shattered again in 1939, Bianchi’s life took another unwelcome turn.  Although he had been resident in England for much of his adult life and had fought on the side of the Allies when Italy opposed the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey) in World War I, Bianchi found himself classed as an alien in World War II after Italy entered an alliance with Germany.

His status in London counted for nothing. He, along with many other Italians and Germans, were taken to Liverpool, set to board the Arandora Star, a ship that would take them to internment in Newfoundland in Canada.

Smithfield Market, where Bianchi worked, was destroyed by a German V2 flying bomb
Smithfield Market, where Bianchi worked, was
destroyed by a German V2 flying bomb
The boat set sail on 2 July, 1940 with 1,300 prisoners on board but had barely hit the open sea of the Atlantic beyond Ireland when it was spotted by a German U-boat.  The enemy submarine was on its way back to base to reload its weapons batteries but had one torpedo left, which its commander  fired at the Arandora Star.

The device hit the side of the Arandora Star. The resulting explosion killed everyone in the ship’s engine room and caused the ship to start sinking rapidly. Bianchi was one of more than 700 Italian prisoners being contained in cramped dormitories - along with almost 600 Germans. Two thirds of the Italians drowned but Bianchi somehow survived and was picked up by a rescue ship.

He was still interned as planned but instead of Canada - or Australia, where others were shipped - was taken to a camp much closer to home on the Isle of Man, where he would remain until the end of 1942. At that point it was considered safe for him to return to London, even though it was not until the autumn of the following year that Italy signed an armistice with the Allies and itself declared war on Germany.

Bianchi rejoined Mary Gall and his children in Hampstead and found a new job in Smithfield Market, with which he hoped to rebuild his career.

The winged angel that sits above the grave of Martha Gall-Bianchi in Hampstead Cemetery
The winged angel that sits above the grave of
Martha Gall-Bianchi in Hampstead Cemetery
After his ordeal on the Arandora Star, he might have hoped that the war would hold no more drama for him but, tragically, that was not the case.

On 8 March, 1945, in one of the last attacks that Germany would launch against Britain, Smithfield Market was struck by a V2, one of the second generation of flying bombs used by the Nazis and the forerunner of the inter-continental ballistic missile.

The explosion caused by the rocket destroyed the market and killed 110 people who were inside at the time, including both Cesare Bianchi and Mary Gall, whose presence there may have been because she was one of a large number of women shopping on that day.

In the circumstances, it was not possible for Bianchi to be buried alongside Martha. Along with the other victims of the bomb, he was laid to rest at the London Cemetery in Manor Park in the borough of Newham in the east of the city.

The Villa d'Este on the shores of Lake Como near Cernobbio, where Cesare Bianchi was born
The Villa d'Este on the shores of Lake Como near
Cernobbio, where Cesare Bianchi was born
Travel tip:

Bianchi’s hometown of Cernobbio is notable for the Villa d’Este, the vast complex built as a 16th century summer residence for the Cardinal of Como, and one of many fine villas fronting the water. The town once attracted large crowds hoping to catch a sight of movie star George Clooney, who had a house at nearby Laglio and would occasionally be spotted at a cafe in Cernobbio. Scenes from the movie Ocean’s 12, in which Clooney starred, were filmed locally. The town generally has more locals than tourists. On summer evenings and weekends when the main piazza is full of families and couples.

The 15th century facade of the Duomo in the centre of the lakeside town of Como
The 15th century facade of the Duomo
in the centre of the lakeside town of Como
Travel tip:

Cernobbio is just a few kilometres from Como, the town at the southern tip of the eastern branch of Lake Como. It is a pleasant town with an impressive cathedral in the historical centre, the construction of which spanned almost 350 years, which is why it combines features from different architectural areas, including Gothic and Renaissance. The façade was built in 1457, its characteristic rose window and a portal flanked by Renaissance statues of Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, both of whom were from Como. This Duomo replaced the earlier 10th-century cathedral, San Fedele.

Also on this day:

1912: The birth of singer-songwriter and actor Renato Rascel

1937: The death of Communist leader Antonio Gramsci

1942: The birth of disgraced entrepreneur Vittorio Cecchi Gori

2014: Popes John XXIII and John Paul II made saints


Home






6 November 2018

Giovanni Buitoni - entrepreneur

Turned family business into multinational company


Giovanni Buitoni took over the running of the family business when he was just 18
Giovanni Buitoni took over the running of
the family business when he was just 18 
Giovanni Buitoni, the entrepreneur who turned Buitoni pasta and Perugina chocolates into the international brands they are today, was born on this day in 1891 in Perugia.

The Buitoni family had been making pasta since 1827, when Giovanni’s great grandmother, Giulia, opened a small shop in the Tuscan town of Sansepolcro, in order to support the family after her husband, Giovan Battista Buitoni, had become ill.  She had her own recipe for pasta that used only high quality durum wheat.

Giulia had pawned her wedding jewellery in order to set up the shop but the business did so well that in 1856 two of the couple’s nine children, Giuseppe and Giovanni, opened a factory in Città di Castello, just over the border in northern Umbria, to manufacture pasta using a hard durum wheat they sourced in Puglia.

Giovanni’s sons, Antonio and Francesco, continued the company’s expansion, founding manufacturing plants in other towns, including Perugia.

It was in Perugia in 1907 that Francesco, noting the increasing popularity of chocolate, joined with several partners in launching the Perugina confectionary company.

Baci chocolates have been one of the most famous lines made by the Perugina chocolate company
Baci chocolates have been one of the most famous
lines made by the Perugina chocolate company
Giovanni junior’s destiny was probably always to have a role in the family business, although it came rather sooner than he expected.  After studying law he had gone to Germany in 1909 to learn the language and to observe the way German industries operated, their practises being somewhat advanced compared with Italy’s.

He curtailed his trip on receiving news that his father’s Perugina chocolate company was on the brink of bankruptcy. Already bursting with ideas for improving business, he persuaded his father to let him take over general management of the company at just 18 years old and succeeded in turning it into a profit-making concern.

Within only a short time, Perugina had expanded from a small basement operation to large factory with hundreds of workers. He installed modern machinery in the plant and introducing new products, among them the famous Baci -‘kisses' - chocolates still produced today, each containing a love note, which were the idea of Luisa Spagnoli, one of his father’s partners - and Giovanni's clandestine lover at the time - who went on to become famous in the fashion industry.

The Buitoni name has been visible in Italian shops since 1827, when the first Buitoni store opened in Sansepolcro
The Buitoni name has been visible in Italian shops since
1827, when the first Buitoni store opened in Sansepolcro
Giovanni even managed to combine running the company with a brief stint in the Italian Army in the First World War and later completing his doctor of law degree at the University of Perugia.

Always an innovator, he increased sales of Buitoni pasta products even in the Great Depression of 1930s by putting picture cards inside each packet for customers to collect. Customers who collected complete sets of the cards were eligible to take part in a radio contest and win prizes, including a FIAT automobile.

Giovanni Buitoni was by now an individual of some stature in Perugia, whose citizens he served as Podesta - mayor - from 1930 to 1935. In 1936, he married the opera singer, Letizia Cairone.

Letizia Cairone married Buitoni in 1936
Letizia Cairone married
Buitoni in 1936
Buitoni’s expansion into production outside Italy came almost through a twist of fate.

In 1939, Giovanni and his wife were invited by the Hershey Chocolate Company, who were holding a 30th anniversary celebration at their headquarters in Pennsylvania, to visit the United States.

They also attended the 1939 World’s Fair to New York City to promote their own products. With his typical entrepreneurial vision, having noted how much visitors were being asked to pay for food, Giovanni opened a pop-up spaghetti café on the site, selling plates of pasta dressed in simple sauces at 25 cents each.  He and Letizia cooked about 15,000 portions over the course of the event.

They found the American lifestyle to their liking and stayed on for a while afterwards. Unfortunately, before they could return to Italy the Second World War broke out, and once Italy had declared war on the side of the Germans, Giovanni and Letizia were unable to travel or access their money.

With no option but to stay and fend for themselves, Letizia followed the lead of Giovanni’s great grandmother and pawned her jewellery, enabling Giovanni to find a small premises in which to open a pasta factory in New Jersey.

Thanks in part to his vision in promoting the Buitoni name at the World’s Fair, the brand began to sell.  Within 15 years, the Buitoni Foods Corporation had a much bigger factory in South Hackensack, New Jersey and later another one in Brooklyn. A spaghetti restaurant in Times Square, New York City, followed, along with a Perugina shop on Fifth Avenue.

Carlo De Benedetti sold the Buitoni business to
Nestlé for $1.4 billion in 1987
Giovanni returned to Italy in 1953 to found the International Buitoni Organization to coordinate all the industrial activities of the family-controlled multinational, but he continued to spend long periods in the United States.

A gifted amateur basso profundo, he was able to realise one of his dreams during his stay in the United States, to sing opera at Carnegie Hall in New York. He invited family, friends and employees to make an audience and, with the help of professional singers Licia Albanese, a soprano, and the baritone Anselmo Colzani, sang arias from Don Giovanni, Rigoletto and Ernani.

Giovanni Buitoni retired from the operational management of the Buitoni group in 1966. He and Letizia had no children and his nephew, Marco Buitoni, succeeded him as president and chief operating officer. Giovanni died in Rome in January 1979.

The business was sold in 1985 to the industrialist Carlo De Benedetti, who owned Olivetti and the newspaper La Repubblica among other things. He in turn sold it for $1.4 billion to its current owner, Nestlé.

The Fontana Maggiore in Perugia's Piazza IV Novembre
The Fontana Maggiore in Perugia's Piazza IV Novembre
Travel tip:

Perugia, the capital of the Umbria region, is an ancient city that sits on a high hilltop midway between Rome and Florence. In Etruscan times it was one of the most powerful cities of the period.  It is also a university town with a long history, the University of Perugia having been founded in 1308.  The presence of the University for Foreigners and a number of smaller colleges gives Perugia a student population of more than 40,000.  The centre of the city, Piazza IV Novembre, has a medieval fountain, the Fontana Maggiore, which was sculpted by Nicolo and Giovanni Pisano.


A view across the rooftops of Sansepolcro
A view across the rooftops of Sansepolcro
Travel tip:

Sansepolcro is a town of 16,000 inhabitants situated about 38km (24 miles) northeast of Arezzo in the east of Tuscany, close to the borders with Umbria and Marche. The historic centre is entirely surrounded with fortified walls, built in the early part of the 16th century. The centre of the town is the Piazza Torre di Berta, named after the 13th-century tower of the same name, off which can be found the impressive Palazzi Pichi and Giovagnoli and the 14th-century cathedral, dedicated to St John the Evangelist.  The city is famous as the place in which the brilliant early Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca was born and died.

More reading:

Michele Ferrero, the man who invented Nutella

Mario Pavesi, the biscuit-maker who gave Italy the Autogrill

Anselmo Colzani and his 16 seasons at The Met

Also on this day:

1835: The birth of pioneer criminologist Cesare Lombroso

2007: The death of author and journalist Enzo Biagi

Vino Novello - Italy's 'nouveau' - goes on sale


Home