A little masterpiece of sweetness
As in a Christmas fairy tale, the scent of cinnamon dissolves every cloud, perfumes the atmosphere with candied orange, illuminates the horizon with vanilla stars.
As in a Christmas fairy tale, one ordinary day, Maria Cristina and Giuseppe kneaded their lives together and what they churned out is a great little pastry masterpiece…Il Fior di Bosco.
Giuseppe is a laborer, and when the Lusia ski-lift company opens its doors, he is among the first to be hired; he works there for about seven years, first as a laborer and then as a catman. Maria Cristina, on the other hand, is a seamstress, a job she loves and that gives her great satisfaction. Both have great manual skills.
Exactly one year after getting married, Joseph and Maria Cristina opened their first small confectionery workshop together. Initially it is more about candies, sugared almonds and a few chocolates. There are also “Le Napoletane,” the candies that in wartime were made at home by spreading two layers of barley sugar with a licorice filling on marble: Giuseppe still creates them today with an old pincer mold given to him by an Alemagna confectioner after completely refurbishing it.
Like this mold, there have been others of machinery and tools recovered and refurbished; today professional pastry equipment is easily purchased, but it was not always so…Giuseppe’s nougat-maker, for example, before it was restored and refurbished to legal standards, graced the garden of an old mansion in Milan as an outdoor planter.
Within a few months of opening, Giuseppe and Maria Cristina doubled production, the clientele increased month by month, and the workshop began to produce local sweets and jams that were then branded and sold by other companies. After a few years, they thus find themselves at a crossroads: continue with contract production by investing in a large new shed or stay “small,” perhaps opening a small store and developing something new?
Three months follow in which Giuseppe no longer distinguishes night from day, working nonstop, but in the end, with Cristina’s help, he manages to completely revolutionize the business. Thus was born Fior di Bosco, the artisan bakery that says goodbye to contracting and embraces all their passion for things done right.
Giuseppe and Cristina are curious, passionate and both of them, since they started this adventure, have never stopped training, studying, updating and comparing themselves with many professionals in the field. Although for work Giuseppe and Maria Cristina have traveled far and wide in Italy, Milan has always been their city: here, in fact, they meet several times a year with many fellow pastry chefs from important pastry shops in Italy with whom over the years they have shared, not only training and professional paths but a great and deep friendship. Also linked to Milan is the training experience of Maria Cristina who, in order to make the most of Giuseppe’s special creations, has never stopped taking courses and updates by an important window-dresser.
Maria Cristina and Giuseppe have never stood still, nor have their recipes. Since they started nothing has ever remained the same except their passion for what they do. Just as M.Cristina studies new materials, techniques and trends for confectionery packaging and window dressing, Giuseppe revises ingredients, harmonizes proportions and inserts new raw materials: when they started all their production was the result of mixing no more than three flours, today Fior di Bosco uses at least twenty different types.
…and then there is the sourdough, the one Giuseppe also uses for panettone and pandoro that from November onwards absorb his endless days of work. The sourdough that Giuseppe has been cultivating for a good twenty-five years. The mother dough to which, Giuseppe, to wash it of its nocturnal acids, takes a “bath” every morning. The mother dough that Giuseppe refreshes at least three times a day, and which you have to know how to “listen” to, to sense its changes and needs. The mother dough that requires absolute commitment and constant devotion but then repays you with a bread that stays soft six days and a panettone that is the bridge to gluttony heaven.
Pasticceria Fior di Bosco
Via Giuseppe Garibaldi 7
38037 Predazzo
