Her name is Giusy Persico and she is the first woman to win the fifth edition of the pastry competition “San Genna'… Un Dolce per San Gennaro”, branded Mulino Caputo.
She is a young pastry chef in the team at the starred restaurant Il Buco in Sorrento. Giusy, after training in advertising graphics and numerous specialization courses in pastry making, has developed a passion for chocolate making and restaurant pastry making.
The jury, composed of Relais Dessert Luigi Biasetto, the Apulian Master Pastry Chef Antonio Daloiso and the CEO of Mulino Caputo, Antimo Caputo, evaluated nine parameters, including the layout of the station, the balance of flavors, the quality of the ingredients and the relevance to the theme, believing that the proposal of the twenty-six-year-old from Sorrento significantly surpassed the other challengers.
"I was inspired by the figure of San Gennaro and the gastronomic traditions of Sorrento, and I used only the highest-quality local products," said an excited Giusy Persico, who took the podium with Aiutame tu!: a vanilla sable'e pastry tartlet with a citrus-flavored ricotta cream, filled with peach jam, and accompanied by a small cruet filled with Taurasi red wine jelly and a touch of Sorrento orange jelly.
The challenge, which took place on the panoramic Roof Garden Angio' of the Renaissance Naples Hotel Mediterraneo, saw Giusy Avallone, of the Avallone pastry shop in Quarto; Guglielmo Cavezza, owner of the Mommy Cafe' pastry shop in Cicciano; Raffaele Cristiano, of the artisanal pastry shop Raffaele Cristiano in Barra; Giovanni Giordano, pastry chef at Sal De Riso Costa D'Amalfi in Minori; Nello Iervolino, pastry chef at the Regina Isabella in Ischia and Ilaria Inchingolo, of the Openlight caffe' in Andria.
"The level of competition was very high - declared Antimo Caputo - so much so that the victory was awarded at a photo finish. Year after year, we see the level of proposals grow and we witness the 'codification' of some symbols, such as shapes and colors.
We also owe this evolution to the competence and attention of the judges: internationally renowned pastry chefs, such as Luigi Biasetto, Sal De Riso, Gino Fabbri and, this year, Antonio Daloiso, who with a broad vision of pastry making tout court, guarantee high-quality evaluations.
We, as a family, as Mulino Caputo, are happy to stimulate the creativity of pastry chefs, to offer an opportunity for comparison and, for the younger ones, to act as a springboard for a career that will bring success”.
Since its first edition, the contest “San Genna'… a dessert for San Gennaro” has enjoyed the moral patronage of AMPI (Accademia Maestri Pasticceri Italiani) and the sponsorship of the company Agrimontana Spa, which has been recognized for the quality of its candied fruit and marrons glace's for fifty years.
