The Cookie Wars

Posted on March 19, 2020 by babbityjean

They are the two superpower Italian food companies:  Ferrero and Barilla.  Both share long histories with the reins of the business passed down to family members for generations.  Both have expanded and acquired many other businesses along the way.  Both have aggressive marketing strategies.  And now they may be on a collision course.

Barilla was founded in 1877 as a bakery shop in Parma by Pietro Barilla.  Now great grandson Guido heads the multi-national corporation and the world’s leading pasta maker.  With 120 different types and shapes of pasta, Barilla commands 40-45% of the Italian market and 35% of the U.S. market.  (In reality, most of the American pasta is made in Iowa or New York using local products.)

Pastry maker Pietro Ferrero founded his company in 1946 in Alba in the Piedmont region of Italy.  Grandson Giovanni now leads the second largest chocolate producer and confectionary company in the world.  Pietro laid the groundwork for present-day Nutella.  In post-war Italy, chocolate was very expensive.  Pietro set out to make a chocolate treat for children that was affordable.  He put chocolate and hazelnuts together to make a treat that he called “gianduia.”  Later it became a spread called “supercrema.”  The recipe was modified and renamed, and the first jar of Nutella left the Ferrero factory in 1964.  It was an instant success.

Meanwhile, Barilla was hard at work on its product lines.  In 1974 Barilla launched Mulino Bianco, a subsidiary that makes iconic breakfast cookies.  With cookie names like Taralucci, Batticuori, Abbracci, Galletti, and Girotondi, Mulino Bianco claims that Italians consume more biscotti than Americans!  I guess if one dunks a cookie in your morning cappuccino and alongside your afternoon espresso, and then feed the kids snacks, there may be some truth to this.

In 1983, Barilla and Mulino Bianco launched Pan di Stelle as chocolate breakfast biscuits.  But it wasn’t until 2018 that things started to heat up.  Barilla introduced jars of Pan di Stelle Crema, a spread made from 100% hazelnuts and chocolate.  Up until this time, the two companies had respected each other’s borders.  Now the juggernaut of Nutella was not about to let this encroachment go unanswered.

Ferrero places great emphasis on secrecy to guard against industrial espionage.  The company’s founder gave two interviews in his life; one was published posthumously.  The company has never held a press conference and does not allow the media to visit its plants.  Ferrero’s products are made with machines designed by an in-house engineering department.  So, its next move is not surprising.  Ferrero quietly tested its new product in other countries.  Then it dipped across the Italian border and rolled out its new Nutella Biscuit in France to start spreading the buzz and the demand among Italians living and traveling abroad.  Then as it unleashed a widespread publicity campaign with huge ads in subway stations, on television screens, and hanging in Rome’s main train station, Ferrero brought Nutella Biscuits home to Italy in November 2019.  The campaign was a huge success:  nearly 6 million boxes were sold in the first four weeks.  The cookies flew off the shelves and were difficult to keep in stock.

But Barilla had an answer.  Through its Mulino Bianco company and its Pan di Stelle brand, it unveiled Pan di Stelle Biscocrema during a press conference at a rooftop venue in Milan.  The event was catered with cookies, and the bar was decorated with star-shaped lights reflecting the cookies that are topped with a solid star of cream.

Ironically, both companies also compete on an environmental level.  For example, Barilla has invested in a foundation dedicated to environmental sustainability and promotes its rejection of palm oil, a saturated fat in Nutella, that has led to devastating deforestation.  Nutella products use one-quarter of the world’s hazelnut supply.  And while hazelnut trees are disease resistant and drought tolerant, Italian environmentalists blame both companies for the aggressive planting of hazelnut trees that reduces the country’s biodiversity.   It is also ironic that in a country we associate with ripe tomatoes, fresh pasta, olive oil and a healthy Mediterranean diet, snack food is becoming more prevalent along with more corpulent bodies, especially among the children.

Posted in Abitudini, Cucina italiana, English, Foto, Italia, Storia | Leave a comment

I diari di Oris Origo

Posted on March 5, 2020 by babbityjean

Si dice che i migliori diari della seconda guerra mondiale siano stati scritti da donne.  Vissero in un momento cruciale della storia, così sentirono l’urgenza di metterla nero su bianco.  Infatti, Guerra in Val d’Orcia di Iris Origo, pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1947, è considerato come uno dei grandi diari del ventesimo secolo.  Descrive il caos e la sofferenza del popolo italiano tra alleati e tedeschi durante fra il 1943 e il 1944.  Solo di recente è stato pubblicato (2017) l’altro diario di Origo: A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939-1940, scritto prima del suo noto lavoro.

La storia della Origo comincia nel 1902.  Nacque a Londra da un’aristocratica donna britannica e da un ricco uomo americano.  Quando Iris aveva solo 7 anni, suo padre morì; nel suo testamento lasciò scritto che voleva che lei vivesse in Italia, paese da lui molto amato.  Fino a 18 anni lei visse a Villa Medici, a Fiesole, sopra Firenze.  Poi, si innamorò e sposò Antonio Origo, un nobile italiano che aveva dieci anni più di lei.

Nel 1923 acquistarono e gestirono La Foce, una fatiscente tenuta toscana di circa 2.832 ettari, che si trova vicino alle città di Montepulciano, Chiusi e Chianciano Terme in Val d’Orcia, a metà strada tra Firenze e Roma.  Gli Origo restaurarono la villa del cinquantesimo secolo e crearono degli splendidi giardini.  Dettero lavoro a venticinque famiglie e costruirono una scuola per insegnare i centocinquanta bambini locali.  Costruirono anche trentacinque abitazioni, negli anni ’20 e ’30, destinate agli agricoltori.

La guerra in Val d’Orcia è un resoconto quotidiano di ciò che accadde, quando questa pacifica valle agricola divenne un campo di battaglia durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Il racconto inizia con l’arrivo dei primi bambini rifugiati inviati dai genitori in risposta al bombardamento alleato delle città italiane, in particolare Genova e Torino. A grande rischio personale, gli Origo diedero anche cibo e riparo a partigiani, ebrei, disertori, rifugiati, prigionieri di guerra e altri antinazisti e antifascisti. Mentre la battaglia tra tedeschi e alleati si infuocava e gli scontri si avvicinavano, gli abitanti de La Foce abbandonarono tutto; la coppia portò in salvo a Montepulciano circa sessanta persone fra adulti, bambini e anziani. La villa sopravvisse, ma non il suo contenuto.

Quasi 80 anni dopo, il primo diario di Iris Origo venne alla luce. A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939-1940.  Registra i mesi precedenti all’entrata in guerra dell’Italia nel secondo conflitto mondiale e la crescente infatuazione del governo fascista verso la Germania nazista, mentre l’esercito di Hitler marciava trionfalmente in tutta Europa. Già scrittrice e biografa nella primavera del 1939, la Origo era profondamente turbata dal conflitto tra Inghilterra e Italia, e decise di annotare nel suo diario “il più semplicemente e sinceramente possibile” gli eventi del mondo, mentre li osservava e li analizzava.

Iris seguiva i discorsi di Mussolini, leggeva la stampa italiana, ascoltava la BBC e altre trasmissioni radiofoniche straniere, parlava con amici e colleghi in Italia e altrove, nel tentativo di capire informazioni contrastanti. Le fu chiaro che Mussolini stava organizzando un programma di propaganda e intimidazione. A Firenze vide che su ogni vetrina c’era il seguente manifesto: “Il Duce ha sempre ragione”.  Capì che la propaganda stava prendendo una direzione economica, in cui i paesi democratici abbienti stavano bloccando permanentemente la strada ai paesi non abbienti, per ottenere potere e dominio economico. Si rese conto che i fascisti vedevano l’imminente guerra come una lotta tra ricchi e poveri, come un movimento rivoluzionario. Seguì e riferì dell’invasione italiana in Albania e dell’invasione tedesca in Polonia.

Per anni il popolo italiano ha confidato che Mussolini, nella speranza che avrebbe tenuto l’Italia fuori dalla guerra. Ma nel giugno del 1940 Mussolini divenne lo sciacallo di Hitler, dichiarando guerra alla Gran Bretagna e alla Francia, proprio mentre i tedeschi erano pronti a entrare a Parigi. Nell’autunno del 1940, dopo la nascita di sua figlia, Origo iniziò a lavorare per la Croce Rossa Italiana e non ebbe così più il tempo di continuare il suo diario. Qualche anno dopo iniziò il suo secondo diario Guerra in Val d’Orcia, lo nascondeva ogni notte le assi del pavimento per evitare che fosse scoperto dai nemici.

Nel loro insieme, entrambi i diari mostrano l’intelligenza di Iris Origo e il profondo affetto che nutriva per il suo paese adottivo. I diari sono anche una storia elettrizzante di una formidabile trasformazione di una donna da osservatrice ad attrice, a un punto di svolta nella storia dell’Europa e degli Stati Uniti. “Chill” non è solo una prefazione al suo successivo diario, ma è anche una storia di ammonimento per i noi lettori contemporanei, riguardo al nostro difficile e pericoloso tempo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Abitudini, Comunità ebrea, Firenze, Foto, Italia, Italiano, La Gente, Libri, Politica, Storia, Toscana | 1 Comment

Iris Origo’s Diaries

Posted on March 5, 2020 by babbityjean

It is said that the best diaries of the second world war were written by women.  They sensed that they were living through a crucial time in history, and they felt the duty to record it.  In fact, War in the Val d’Orcia by Iris Origo, first published in 1947, was hailed as the one of the great diaries of the twentieth century.  It describes the chaos and suffering of the Italian people caught between the Allies and the Fascists and the Germans in 1943 and 1944.  Only recently Origo’s other diary was published (2017):  A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939-1940, which is set earlier than her established and well-known work.

Origo’s story begins in 1902.  She was born in London to a British aristocrat mother and to a wealthy American father.  When Iris was only 7, her father died; he stipulated in his will that he wanted her to live in Italy, a country he loved.  She grew up in the Villa Medici, in Fiesole, above Florence.  At 18, she fell in love with and married Antonio Origo, an Italian nobleman who was ten years her senior.

In 1923, they bought and managed La Foce, a dilapidated Tuscan estate of about 7,000 acres (c. 2832 hectares), which lies close to the towns of Montepulciano, Chiusi and Chianciano Terme in the Val d’Orcia, midway between Florence and Rome.  The Origos restored the 15th century villa and planted beautiful gardens.  They employed 25 families and built a school to teach 50 local children.  They also built 35 dwellings in the 20s and 30s for tenant farmers.

War in the Val d’Orcia is a daily account of what happened when this peaceful farming valley became a battleground during the war.  The account begins with the arrival of the first refugee children sent by parents in response to the Allied bombing of Italian cities, particularly Genoa and Turin.  At great personal risk, the Origos also gave food and shelter to partisans, Jews, deserters, refugees, prisoners-of-war, and other anti-nazis and anti-fascists.  As the battle between the Germans and the Allies heated up and the fighting drew near, the inhabitants of La Foce abandoned everything; the couple shepherded about 60 adults, children and the elderly through artillery fire to safety in Montepulciano.  The villa survived but not its contents.

Nearly 80 years later, Iris Origo’s first diary came to light.  A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939-1940 records the months before Italy’s descent into the Second World War, and the Fascist government’s growing infatuation with Nazi Germany as Hitler’s armies marched triumphantly across Europe.  Already a writer and biographer in the spring of 1939, Origo was deeply troubled by the conflict between England and Italy and decided “to steady herself” by setting down “as simply and truthfully as I can” the world’s events as she observed and analyzed them.

She followed Mussolini’s speeches, read the Italian press, listened to the BBC and other foreign radio broadcasts, and talked with friends and associates in Italy and beyond in an attempt to sort through conflicting information.  It became clear to her that Mussolini was mounting a program of propaganda and intimidation.  She noted that in Florence every shop window was covered with notices that read, “Il Duce ha sempre ragione,” or “The Duce is always right.”  She records that the propaganda was taking the form of an economic problem where the democratic countries, the “haves,” were permanently blocking the way of the “have nots” to gain economic expansion.   She notes that the Fascists saw the impending war as a struggle between the rich and poor—as a revolutionary movement.  She follows and reports on Italy’s invasion of Albania and Germany’s invasion of Poland.

For years the Italian people hoped and trusted that Mussolini would keep Italy out of war.  But by June 1940 Mussolini had become the jackal to Hitler’s lion, declaring war on Britain and France just as the Germans were poised to enter Paris.  By the fall of 1940 after the birth of her daughter, Origo began to work in the Prisoner’s Branch of the Italian Red Cross and no longer had time to continue her diary.  A few years later she began her journal that would become War in Val d’Orcia, hiding it under the floorboards every night to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Taken together, both diaries show what a perceptive and intelligent writer Iris Origo was, and the deep affection she had for her adopted country.  The diaries also are a thrilling story of a formidable woman’s transformation from observer to actor at a turning point in the history of Europe and the United States.  “Chill” is not only a preface to her later diary but it is also a cautionary tale to our own perilous times.

Posted in Abitudini, Comunità ebrea, English, Firenze, Foto, Italia, La Gente, Libri, Politica, Storia, Toscana | 1 Comment