INNOVATION IN PASTRY - INTERVIEW WITH DAVIDE MARCANTOGNINI, SENIOR PRODUCT SPECIALIST GIUSO
We hear a lot about innovation in pastry, but is it possible to combine modernity with a tradition of over 100 years?
We talked to Davide Marcantognini, who has been with Giuso since 2006, currently Senior Product Specialist he covers the role of technical commercial trainer and is responsible for the coordination and supervision of the PS Team and R&D activities.
What is meant when we talk about ‘innovation’ in pastry making?
For a historic and traditional company like Giuso, innovation has always been at the centre of every activity, especially in pastry making, where obsessive attention towards the quality and origin of the ingredients, products with clean labels, the reduction of sugar, and the transformation of precious raw materials with minimally invasive methods have always been fundamental pillars for Giuso.
Even though our peninsula has notable differences in regional traditions between northern, central, and southern Italy, we have always proposed ourselves as a partner for our customers, doing our best to help them seize the opportunities and changes in the market, to create products of superior quality that help the artisan to create simpler, tastier, more appealing recipes that satisfy an open-minded and modern consumer.
Giuso is a company that boasts over 100 years of history: is it possible to combine old traditions with innovation?
Certainly, and it is what we have always done because tradition and innovation are in the DNA of the company and in its workforce. Italian consumers in recent years have changed significantly, they are increasingly informed, attentive, and exigent. Only the artisans that manage to follow and anticipate the trends are destined to be successful.
Lievicreme Giuso is without doubt a highly innovative line. Which are the characteristics that make it unique on the market?
The great leavened products for special occasions, more than other traditional pastry products, represent and symbolize the transformation of the confectionery market. The pastry chef during the last ten years has started to use more natural yeasts, quality candied and semi-candied fruit, paying attention to the label and the origin of every ingredient, creating classic proposals, but also new recipes and combinations of taste, with the intention of directing the consumer towards quality, distracting them from the standard industrial product, with great satisfaction and success.
In view of the Christmas holidays, is there a recipe to create using Lievicreme that in your opinion cannot and should not be missing in the pastry shop?
I suggest the Linzer Cake, the typical Austrian cake that gets its name from the city Linz, enriched with ginger and Lievicreme Amarena, an original and fragrant tart, perfect the Christmas holidays.