By Sabrina Cuculiansky

The pastry chef Juan Manuel Alfonso, was the Argentine winner of the second edition of the Panettone World Championship, a competition carried out by the Accademia Maestri del Lievito Madre e del Panettone, Academy of the masters of sourdough and Italian Panettone, with the order to promote the quality of traditional Italian artisan Panettone throughout the world.

Argentina participated for the first time in the competition organized by the Italian culinary academy, thanks to the Le 5 Stagioni mill company that brings pizza flour, panettone flour and other products to Argentina.

In our country, the competition was held at the School of the Confectionery Union where each of the participants had to present four classic 1kg panettones; and a jury of five renowned chefs were those who analyzed each of the products made. The jury was made up of the icons of the local pastry shop, Osvaldo Gross and Ximena Saenz, together with Héctor Brignole from Confitería El Progreso; Nestor Regianni from Confitería La Nueva Muguet, and Marco Di Meo, president of Digimpex, the importer that brings the flours from the Italian mill.

The classic panettone, as Juan explains, “is the one with raisins and candied orange, and what is analyzed in the contest is moisture, alveolature, color, fluffiness of the crumb, flavor, structure, volume, aesthetics, aroma, quantity of fruits, quality of fruits and the recipe for each panettone. After a lot of effort and a very even competition, I won this local instance "

The semifinal will be in Parma, Italy; and the world final will take place in October, in Milan, within the framework of Host Milano.

Out of a total of 160 participants, only 35 will compete in the semi-final. There are 30 Italian pastry chefs along with five semi-finalists from different countries. Then only 20 will make it to the final in Milan.

"Panettone is a product that takes three days to make and, although it is a relative of sweet bread, its recipe has 30-40% more butter and only egg yolk is used. As Alfonso comments, the great difficulty of the elaboration lies in the exact fermentation temperatures, the mixing that must be long and slow, the careful preparation of each ingredient and having the mother lievito in perfect condition so that the panettone can ferment. “It consists of two mixes, the first one takes the sourdough and ferments for about twelve hours. The second ferments between four to six and is then cooked. Once cooked, it should be hung upside down for twelve hours until it cools well ”.

The secret of hanging it upside down is because of the large amount of yolks and butter. If it doesn't hang, the crumb sinks. Of course, no rush to eat it, because the tastiest point to taste it is after 15 days, when the flavors have already settled.

The winner of the first prize that will represent our country in Italy was prepared for four months and made more than 1500 units until he achieved the precious product of it.

For the confectioner at Confitería Artiaga, the secret of his sourdough is to keep it active and feed it daily. "A healthy sourdough makes it possible to achieve a panettone with a good crumb, long-lasting product, and offers a very personal and particular aroma"

For the kneading and the fermentations, the thermometers and an exact fermenter were his best allies and at the time of the oven the temperature is the most complicated. “The oven is very important. The key is to remove it to 93 ºC in the center of the piece ”.

In addition, to be more exact, he had large stainless steel needles made to be hung upside down when they come out of the oven so that the pieces do not sink in on themselves due to humidity and maintain the tenderness of the crumb.

When it comes to thinking about the finals, Juan knows that to achieve the best flavor, he needs to prepare the pieces on the same day as the semifinals, since the dough needs about 15 days to give the best.

The Argentines and the panetonne

"Argentines have a very Italian palate and the flavor of Italy is present in every local bakery and confectionery," says the pastry chef, who plans to make a version with dulce de leche.

Although he knows how difficult the competition will be because “there are Italians who have been doing this for generations”, being able to participate is a dream for him. “It is the product that I love making the most. And I am sure that we are going to present battle to them "

As a third generation of pastry chefs and bakers, Juan made sweet bread his whole life. He learned it from his grandmother who was taught by a pastry chef from Genoa, Italy.

The machinery

In his confectionery, located in the Saavedra neighborhood, he has very old machinery such as the centennial oven 13 meters long. “The ideal mixer for making panettone is with arms, which in Italy is called bracci tuffanti. Here, we have hook mixers and the best ovens are rotary ones like the Polin ones.

The flour

The best flours for panettone is the one that has a lot of strength, the ideal one is Manitoba and the only one in Argentina is 5stagioni.

The future of the local panetonne

“I think that little by little, panettone will take its place in Argentina, and I am also sure that we can seasonally adjust it to eat it all year round. Winter is ideal and in summer it can be combined with ice cream. It's crazy rich and it lasts a long time. You can even take it with you to drink mate on vacation "