Can You Order A Cake From Costco Online

"They idea I was certifiably crazy."

That was the reaction pastry chef Roy Shvartzapel says he got six years ago when he told colleagues and friends he was starting an online-only panettone business.

"People said, what are you thinking? This will never piece of work. No one in America knows what panettone is, much less plenty people to buy enough of information technology to warrant a business organization," the Bay Expanse resident says. Simply Shvartzapel, who had worked with top chefs including Pierre Hermé, Ferran Adrià, Thomas Keller, and learned to make panettone from Iginio Massari—a man considered to exist the godfather of Italian pastry chefs—knew he was onto something.

Chef Roy Shvartzapel

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"I had a belief, possibly because I'd spent then much fourth dimension in Europe, Italy, and France, that it was only a matter of fourth dimension before someone was going to introduce a category that already existed. I didn't introduce this category of panettone that's not the inedible $7.99, produced-in-June panettone that we all knew. I didn't invent annihilation. I just may have been a catalyst for bringing panettone proper attending in the United States and introducing people to a quality level of a product that had long existed."

The response has been brisk. So brisk, in fact, that Shvartzapel can't proceed his panettone in stock. Christmas pre-orders on his bakery's website have been closed for nearly two weeks. The site is still accepting New Yr's pre-orders, though, and for a holiday exclusive, Shvartzapel teamed up with the Michelin-starred Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura in Beverly Hills to create two limited-edition flavors that sell for $150: candy-coated orange with raisin and orangish with hazelnut gianduja.

While panettone is undoubtedly having a culinary moment at present, its long history is worth exploring. Hither's everything yous want to know about it.

Roy Shvartzapel'south panettone comes in two flavors: candied orange raisin and chocolate.

Nicholas Muncy

What Exactly Is Panettone?

Panettone is a slightly sweet staff of life (or cake, co-ordinate to some) that is traditionally eaten around the holiday season. It has a dome-like shape, and the best ones have an airy texture along with a rich, buttery gustation. The traditional version includes stale fruits like candied orange peels and raisins.

Panettone is often confused with pandoro, another Italian pastry consumed around Christmas. Pandoro originated in Verona, though, and does not typically contain dried druit. It's traditionally made in a taller star shape and topped with powdered sugar.

Where Was It Created?

Every bit legend has it, Panettone's roots date to the 15th century. As John Mariani wrote in The Dictionary of Italian Nutrient and Drink and the Washington Mail subsequently highlighted, "the cake derives its name from a 15th-century fable of an Italian baker named Toni. His beautiful girl was courted past an aristocrat who offered to work as an amateur in the bakery, just to be near the object of his affection. The apprentice created a very rich and very popular cake that came to be known as 'hurting di Toni,' or staff of life of Tony. (In today'due south English, the proper name of the bread is typically pronounced 'pan-neh-To-nay.')"

Whatever the true origin story is, experts agree that panettone has deep connections to Milan. "An entire city identifies itself with this sweet. It'south important for Milan, and for the Milanese," Stanislao Porzio, author of the book Panettone and the founder and organiser of Re Panettone, the national Italian festival devoted to the food, told the BBC. "Simply information technology also is very important for bakeries throughout Italy. Panettone has become the typical Italian Christmas dessert."

A pastry chef adds raisins to the dough while making a traditional panettone on December vi, 2017, at the Pasticceria San Gregorio in Milan.

MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP Getty Images

While panettone originated in Italy, Italian immigrants to South America between 1880 and 1900 brought their recipes with them when they settled first in Argentina and then Brazil. Panettone took off in Due south America, and at present Peruvians consume their country's version, fabricated with dried papaya, around Christmas and Peru's Independence Day in July.

How Should I Eat and Store Information technology?

Shvartzapel recommends consuming his panettone at room temperature or slightly warmed with coffee, tea, or dessert wine. He suggests slicing it in half vertically (through the paper mold) with a serrated knife and then cutting information technology into smaller pieces. The panettone has a shelf life of 30 days, and to preserve its freshness, it should exist stored tightly sealed in the purse that it arrives in at room temperature and away from direct sunlight or heat.

Why Is There Such Price Disparity?

The all-time panettone require a lot of attempt to produce. Shvartzapel'due south, for example, takes approximately xl hours to make. He starts with a natural starter fabricated from water, flour, and wild yeast, which he and then mixes with flour, eggs, butter, and sugar. Afterwards that, he kneads the panettone and lets it rest and proof a few times before baking information technology. To create and preserve the dome-similar structure, Shvartzapel and other chefs hang their panettone upside down to cool.

hanging upside down panettone xmas cakes to finish preparation

Panettones hang upside downward in a Milan bakery.

Cavan Images Getty Images

The disparity in price between panettone like the ones offered by Shvartzapel'due south baker From Roy, which sells them for $75, and those bachelor for effectually $10 on Amazon comes from the time required to create the higher-quality versions and the ingredients they use. Bauducco, which makes versions available on Amazon and supermarkets effectually the Us, is the largest producer of baked goods in Brazil and the largest panettone maker in the world, exporting to more than 80 countries.

Mass-produced panettone is made using a commercial process with commercial yeast and preservatives, which purists avoid. At that place is also a range of quality among ingredients. Dino Borri is Global VP of Eataly North America, which sells panettone from about 20 different producers. In terms of ingredient variation, Borri says that while traditional Italian versions of panettone are ever made using butter, some producers utilize a less expensive kind of fat, similar margarine, which likewise accounts for lower prices.

Eataly sells Panettones from approximately 20 different producers, with flavors ranging from classic candied fruit to pistachio to dark chocolate and in sizes up to ten kilograms.

Eataly

"It's very hard to brand a good, high-quality product for a lot of people," Borri says. "This is why even the iii-Michelin star chefs are making their ain panettone. Information technology is an artisanal product and you can brand an incredible panettone if you use some unique products." Overall, the chefs' skills, the ingredients, and the process they employ to make to make the panettone account for the difference in prices.

There is too a range of sizes. A standard panettone is one kilogram, just Eataly sells panettone in sizes upwardly to 10 kilograms. Borri says the larger the panettone, the more moist and airy it is inside.

Pope Francis smells a panettone offered to him by a pastry chef at the Vatican on December 19, 2018.

VINCENZO PINTO/AFP Getty Images

A Panettone Festival in New York City

Cristiano Rossi grew up in Italy and had the thought to launch New York'south inaugural festival devoted to panettone after opening 2 Italian pastry shops in the urban center.

"I realized Americans could non become all the panettone that nosotros had in Italy and they think it's just a sugariness bread with raisins and candy, merely in Italy, nosotros have panettone filled with pistachio cream or chocolate or truffles or vin santo," Rossi says. "Last Christmas, I brought panettones from famous producers to the United states of america and I sold more than 500 in two days!"

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After that, Rossi saw there was a need for high-end panettone from top Italian chefs and decided to launch the New York Panettone Festival in Long Island City, which began last weekend and continues December 18 and 19. The festival is complimentary and open to the public. Panettones from chefs including Massari are available for sale, and the response last weekend was strong that 3,000 visitors attended and bought out all the inventory, prompting an early closure on Dominicus.

Rossi plans to open an Italian gelateria, the Santa Chiara Caffé, in early 2022 on the ground floor of 52-41 Center Boulevard, a 44-story residential building at Hunters Point South near where the festival is taking identify in Long Island Metropolis.

He said that a new trend in Italian republic involves serving savory panettone with olive oil and guanciale and salt instead of carbohydrate. No discussion yet on whether those will make an advent at Rossi's next panettone festival.