Panettone Rises Again

Regift no more! Made right, Italy’s favourite festive bread is a thing of joy.

- Serena Renner

Andrea Busnelli and his wife, Ilaria, light up when they talk about Gigi. He was born in 1970 at their ornate Pasticceria Busnelli in Milan. He feeds on wheat flour and warm water at 7am, noon and 6pm every day. “Often, we cannot go on holidays because of Gigi,” Ilaria says.

Andrea disappears to his baking “laboratory” and returns with the 47-yearold starter dough, cradled in his arm like a top-percentile infant swaddled in cotton and coiled rope. Gigi is the secret behind the Busnelli family’s panettone.