Ferdinando De Simone, twenty-eight year old pastry chef of the starred restaurant Lorelei in Sorrento, won the title for the best dessert dedicated to San Gennaro, during the sixth edition of the contest San Gennà…A dessert for San Gennaro by Mulino Caputo.
His proposal, christened with the auspicious invocation Miettc a man tu, is a Sorrento citrus cake, made with Caputo Pasticceria, enriched with ricotta cheese, Sao Thome dark chocolate ganache, Agrimontana black cherries and an infusion of summer flowers and basil.
De Simone, who boasts a degree in food technology, acquired "on-the-job" training in the kitchens of large Italian restaurants.
Visibly moved, the winner declared: “I am very happy with this award and I say to young people like me: work hard, study, dream and you will see that every goal will become achievable. Every day must be a challenge to improve and surpass yourself. These competitions are fundamental, whether you win or not. They are an opportunity to look for new combinations, test yourself and compare yourself with colleagues.”
The jury of the sixth edition, chaired by Relais Dessert Luigi Biasetto and composed of the president of Ampi, Sal De Riso, the chef Gennaro Esposito, the master pastry chef Sabatino Sirica and the miller Antimo Caputo, had a lot to do in choosing the winner , finding themselves tasting all the proposals of the highest quality and characterized by a strong creativity.
The competition, which has returned to the location of the first edition, Palazzo Petrucci in Posillipo, which in 2016 hosted the debut of "San Gennà...", enjoys the patronage of the Italian Master Pastry Chef Academy and the technical sponsorship of Agrimontana.
Antimo Caputo, CEO of the Mulino of the same name, expressed his satisfaction: “Every year it becomes more difficult for us jurors to choose a single winner: each of these young pastry chefs really gives their best. I feel like saying that we are achieving our main objective which is to involve them in a creative discussion for an innovative and high quality pastry shop. The competing proposals are increasingly lighter, more scenic and closer to the tastes of the younger generations. A challenging task that we entrust to the competitors: it is easier to work on something that has existed for a long time, in fact, rather than creating a dessert from scratch. We really like that, over the course of the editions, the shape of the dessert is being defined, which is round; that the colors of the Saint are increasingly exalted: red and yellow, that a lot of work is done on textures: shortcrust pastry, puff pastry, crunchy and fragrant dough and that natural flavors are sought.”
From today it will be possible to taste all the competing proposals.
In particular, L' Anima di San Gennaro, a shortcrust pastry with lemon ganache, by Guglielmo Cavezza, is available at Pasticceria Mommy Caffè in Cicciano; Incantesimo, a hazelnut shortcrust pastry with black cherries and meringue, at Pasticceria artigianale Raffaele Cristiano in Naples; Miraculum, a babà enclosed in a puff pastry, by Giuseppe Cristofaro, at Pasticceria Dolce Voglia in Frattaminore; you will have to travel to Umbria, to the Casa Rossa del Castello di Postignano, to taste the pasticciotto proposed by Antonio Della Monica: Il miracolo… di San Gennaro. At La Forneria in Naples you can taste the single portion with a heart of apricot jam Dolce Miracolo, developed by the young Giorgio Maiorano; at Pasticceria Biagio Martinelli in Aversa, in the province of Caserta, you can order the pasticciotto with caprese with San Gennaro lemon; while the Speranza&Passione sablée, by pastry chef Chiara Naclerio, will be available at the Ristorante La Corte degli Dei, in Agerola. In Sorrento, Maria Varone will propose Emblema di San Gennaro, with walnuts and a heart of black cherries, at the Hilton Sorrento Palace.
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