Focus on Gianduia, Part 35: Premium Gianduia Spread Scorecard

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Nov 282011
 

Availability of premium gianduia spreads in the United States has increased dramatically over the past several years, making it much easier to find products of acceptable quality.

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Focus on Gianduia, Part 33: The Soul of Nutella

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Oct 242011
 

Ferrero’s transformation and international expansion of the Nutella brand over the past forty-seven years remains one of Italy’s greatest industrial success stories.  But something was lost along the way.

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Focus on Gianduia, Part 32: Michele Ferrero, Supercrema, and Nutella

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Oct 172011
 

Fate dealt Ferrero two blows with the flood of 1948 and, six months later, the death of its founder.  The following year, the company reorganized under the direction of Ferrero’s widow Piera, his younger brother Giovanni, and his twenty-five-year-old son Michele (1).

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Focus on Gianduia, Part 24: Shape and Formation of Gianduiotti

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Jun 202011
 

Having discussed the traditional tripartite composition of gianduiotti (i.e., sugar, cacao, Tonda Gentile delle Langhe), we now turn to their shape and three methods of formation.

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Focus on Gianduia, Part 17: Il Duce e il Dolce

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May 022011
 

Most efforts to historically contextualize gianduia focus solely on the era of its presumed invention in the mid-1860s.  However, as we’ve seen, many components of the gianduia myth first arose in the 1930s, through Cagliano’s article in Il Dolce (1932), Succ. Caffarel Prochet & Co.’s “Gianduia 1865” marketing campaign (1936), and the booklet Il Cioccolato ed il Suo Valore Alimentare (1933).  The 1930s witnessed a confluence of factors favorable to increased prominence and production of gianduia—a perfect storm, with Benito Mussolini at the eye.

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