LIFESTYLE | New forms for sweet traditions

Historical pastry shops are changing their format, geographical reach, look, and products. Milan plays its trump cards: an international scope, the union of sweets and fashion, and the cultural experience of places and products. Just about everything is changing, except the taste of tradition.

By Anna Prandoni

Once upon a time, it all came down to the neighbourhood. The historical and traditional pastry shop was chosen among those near the home, and they all sold the same products. Pastry shops, especially in Milan, were a place to go to purchase sweets and pastries for Sunday and cakes for birthdays; the packaging was paper embellished with the shop’s name written in calligraphy, wrapped up with a gold ribbon, a symbol of the special event which required a celebration.

The places which held those sweets were, especially in the city, wood and glass bonbonnieres, where display cases made it possible to admire their delicious contents. From then until today, the world of pastries has changed drastically, and the industry has also become part of the ‘Milan-style’ fashion system. None of its appeal has been lost, though the format has changed radically, from big family projects that become brands, to brands whose holding companies incorporate even Milan’s historical and family-run businesses.

In 2014, looking to the Expo of the following year, Miuccia Prada partnered with Patrizio Bertelli to acquire 80% of the historical Marchesi pastry shop, with its wooden display case and robust counter, its colourful sweets and constant hustle and bustle, a symbol of a city at a crossroads of people, bubbling over with energy. It was a place where you’d come for a quick espresso, between one errand and the next, or before work, or to get your children a snack, and you’d stay the bare minimum: no lingering at café tables—this is Milan. Even the pastries were to be taken with punctiliousness, and in a hurry. Since then, Prada’s decision has set a trend, as often happens, and other fashion houses have followed suit, sidling up to the world of baked goods: still today, this industry is a world to be explored in ever-new ways.

After all, the pairing of sweets and fashion is nothing if not varied, going from the iconic piece of a fashion house which is reinterpreted in a sugary key, to the creation of something completely new, an object or a place to experience. French inspiration arrives via LV Dream, the space opened by Louis Vuitton in Paris which includes a chocolate shop and a café overseen by Maxime Frédéric, the pastry chef at Hotel Cheval Blanc Paris: a cultural and gastronomic destination where even sweets and chocolate play with the classic Vuitton motifs.
This same international breadth also characterises Cova: after becoming part of the LVMH Group (having ‘slipped away’ from Prada, no less), the famous pastry shop is looking beyond its historical location in Milan’s fashion district. Having already exported Italian excellence to Asia, it’s now gearing up to continue expanding to other metropolises, in Europe and beyond.

The bond between fashion and sweet food is one enhanced not only through investments and new ideas in relation to the hospitality industry, but one which could possibly also become, for example, part of a capsule collection. That’s exactly what The Attico has done, in partnership with New York hospitality group Sant Ambroeus: a sweatshirt, a t-shirt, a baseball cap, and a take-away coffee mug, designed by Giorgia Tordini and Gilda Ambrosio, who in turn were inspired by the sciure (well-heeled older ladies) often found in Milanese cafés, and by the vibes of the two cities. The historical brand has recently reopened in Milan after a renovation which made space for the old, in the same vein as that started by Prada with Marchesi: change everything except the substance.

It's a sign that, from designer brands to those in a more manageable domain, perhaps tied to a specific geographical area, co-branding is a business opportunity which can also be captured on a cultural level, as an innovative and contemporary way of enhancing what a particular product or place of culture has to offer. Even (or rather, especially) beyond one’s canons and borders.

Connections are made between other historical places throughout the city, intertwining their pasts: from Gattullo to Taveggia, from Bastianello to Cucchi, every name evokes meaningful local moments, and also different clienteles and football loyalties. No Inter fan would ever by a Carlina pastry from Gattullo, and the who’s who of the publishing industry gather around the rice pastry made by Cucchi, in a sort of language of taste which has no room for misunderstandings.

Affluent Milan goes to Peck as per tradition, and exclusively buys the marrons glacés from Galli, while tourists are increasingly drawn to Savini in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. New stories are being told by families who arrived after the 1960s, yet who have managed to stand out: Martesana, with its orange look, has become a new must-have and its panettoni dell’Enzo are increasingly popular; while a historical pastry shop from Genoa which has recently opened in Milan seems like it’s always been there, all thanks to its heritage. Romanengo is the sweet turning point of the Porta Genova quarter, and its bon bons, chocolates and candies have brought a new classic to the city known for favourably welcoming new tendencies and making them its own, embracing them and turning them into new Italian trends.