Observed Through Desire: Valextra Meets Panettone Connoisseur Davide Longoni
The Longoni bakery is one of Milan’s most popular eateries famed for its candied creations. Here, its founder reveals the secret art of artisanal baking.
There are few things that denote festive desire more than the tradition of panettone. One of Lombardy’s most famous exports, its arrival heralds the most wonderful time of the year. For the third chapter in our holiday festivities, Observed Through… Desire, we spoke to one of its most celebrated connoisseurs, Davide Longoni. Here, the master baker talks about preserving the art of baking and the secret to the perfect panettone.
Valextra: Hi Davide, it's a pleasure to meet you. Your bakery, Panificio Longoni, is one of Milan’s most popular destinations. Can you tell us how this passion for the work you do was born?
Davide Longoni: Like many Italian artisanal trajectories, the experience has been handed down to me by my family. I am the son and grandson of bakers. However, the passion did not come immediately. Initially, I studied modern literature, ending up working in a photojournalism agency. What I was doing was stimulating, but despite having reached my goal, I discovered that I didn't feel satisfied and free in fully expressing myself. Making bread allows me to fulfil this need in a very personal way. Returning to the family business, I wanted to work with total respect and care for traditions but with the idea of making it an increasingly lively and contemporary profession.
V: Panettone represents the optimum sweet treat during the festive season. What makes it so special and in demand from year to year?
DL: I think it is its contemporaneity. The craftsmanship operates and lives in the precise moment in which something is being created, through precise choices. This ranges from the careful selection of raw materials and chosen collaborators, to the delivery of the product to the public. All craftsmen have this research in common and if quality is the main ingredient, the work translates into gratification, recognition, and success. This, for me, is being current and it is also the success that has brought panettone to be so famous.
V: How important is it to you that this artisanal approach is celebrated and preserved over time?
DL: It is fundamental. It is on the supply chain that the values of knowledge, sustainability and the future continue to count. We are all called to make precise and responsible choices, but above all with awareness of what is being done, to build tomorrow day after day. In our case, we protect and support the rediscovery of organic and sustainable rotations. We are an agricultural dimension, so we focus on the supply chains, choosing millers who grind with stone and develop the tradition through the use of sourdough.
V: Speaking of sourdough, we know that your sourdough is something very special for you and you cultivate it with dedication every day. What value and meaning does it have for you to carry forward this experience and wisdom?
DL: Mother yeast guarantees a personal uniqueness! It is an ancient natural leavening method, which I have chosen, and brought to the attention of today's healthy living and eating society. Many describe it as ‘grandfather's yeast’, but I like to describe it as an ingredient that is renewed every day. It is fed with flour and water every day and for this reason it continues to live, through the constant care of the craftsman who must know the balance and interpret its needs. It is a difficult challenge, which as a result reveals enormous satisfaction and forms a special bond. And then it's different every day, which is why it's exciting. Today I am happy to have contributed and involved many good bakers in choosing it as a leavening method.
V: How important is it to you to be unique?
DL: Uniqueness is synonymous with quality and distinction. Our choice is to preserve it, not by making large distributions, but through a single laboratory from which the products come out. Even our outlets aim to express this local authenticity. We have chosen not to use logo packaging to reflect a product that aspires to remain itself.
V: To end on panettone, Milan is its original home. What do you think is the link between this iconic dessert and its place of origin, which has been unbreakable over time?
DL: Panettone was born as a Milanese artisanal product in the shops, but only became iconic after the war. It was industrialisation that brought it to the fame it has today. It was for this reason that panettone was not made in our family business as it was seen as a product belonging to large-scale distribution and that made it unapproachable for us. Today, however, we make Pane delle Feste again with an artisanal and sustainable approach also in terms of quantity, offering it to the public in a limited edition.
V: The ingredients you use are very special – can you tell us a little about them?
DL: We are keen to create a product of Milanese artisan quality, with an extensive search for raw materials and conscious principles. For example, the candied fruit we use is made from oranges in Calabrian citrus groves confiscated from the underworld. It then goes through a supply chain process of totally Italian candied fruit before it gets delivered to us.
V: We won't miss a chance to taste it! To conclude, a tribute to our city, what aspect of Milan fascinates you?
DL: Milan is a city where many people get involved and it has a sense of proportion that fascinates me. And then it is a city that knows how to enjoy life and appreciate the value hidden behind a passion, giving space to expressiveness.