Marchesi - Pastries of Time Gone By
Marchesi
is one of the oldest pastry shops in Milan where the art of bakers, the
flavors, the colors and the smells meet and blend into the classic
tradition menghina (of Milan also meaning
a dessert or sweet). This shop began in the second half of the 1800's
by Angelo Marchesi and is still situated today in one of the wonderful
1700's style palazzi.
Today the style of the early 1900's has been maintained with decorated boxed ceilings, antique furniture, and lamps with the old bar in steel and brass. One can say, today in this shop one may literally breat
he an atmosphere of the 1800's, almost a Renoir painting.They are famous for their panettone, veneziana, praline and krantz as well as, not to miss, a daily appointment for breakfast with warm sweet rolls to tempt and, cocktail hour at the bar. If you want to see the real Milanesi, hang out during these two times and one could fill pages and pages for a book on old Milan. The origins of krantz go back to when the Milanese kicked Austria out of the city, this bread is not just about risen dough, it also contains puff pastry and takes from 17 to 24 hours to create! Tasting this for the first time in all the years here in Italy, I confess, it is and was (devoured it) the most incredible marriage of butter and candied fruit! I hate to guess how much it cost my partner, I gather one needs a bank loan for these breads.
Panettone is a large Italian sweetbread, which is "the" dessert for the traditional Italian Christmas lunch as well as, being the favored dessert during the festivities of the season. There are two types of panettone, the one you find in the supermarkets produced commercially and, the ones you can find at some of the old Milanese pastry shops (taking 2-3 days to produce). Real panettone is not dry but a soft, humble bread containing sultan raisins and top quality candied fruit (particularly that from Sicily). There are various legends as to the origin of this cake; one being that it was created by a kitchen helper of the court of the Sforza’s. This cake had to replace the chef’s cake, which had burnt in the oven. Another story runs along the lines of this, that the falconer of Ludwig the Moor, in love with the daughter of the baker, saved the bakery from bankruptcy by selling the falcons, and buying the ingredients for the panettone. The sweetbread then became a hit with the Milanese.
It is also said to have been a dessert created from the simple, leftover ingredients in the pantry, made by a nun who then drew a cross in the top of the dough to thank God for his providence.
During our travel to this shop, it was snowing with frigid temperatures as the whole world seemed to be in line cramming the store for their Christmas breads; soft lights on the inside with steamy windows; this seemed to be an image from Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match-Seller, only the difference here was, the images were real and these delights are created as little works of art by the Marchesi family.
These specialties (panettone, krantz etc) used to be by reservation only and in person, not by phone, but today one can slip in un-announced and partake in this glorious old Milanese tradition; I wonder how the veneziana is...the traditional cake for New Years...thinking we may have to try to do another illegal park job to get there again.
The shop is open Tues - Saturday from 7:30 to 9pm, and Sunday f
rom 8am to 1pm.
