April Fool’s Day

Posted on April 1, 2020 by babbityjean

April Fool’s Day is a tradition followed in many countries throughout the world.  Jokes or pranks are played on people, usually with good-natured intent.  The tradition has characteristics similar to holidays, such as Hilaria of ancient Rome, which are related to the spring equinox.

Many theories have been proposed on its origins.  One of the oldest concerns the Blessed Bertrando of San Genesio, bishop of Aquileia (at the top of the Adriatic) in the 14th century, who miraculously saved a pope who was suffocating on a fish bone.  Out of gratitude, the pontiff decreed that fish should not be eaten in Aquileia on April 1st.   Perhaps the most accredited theory places the origins in 16th century France.  Under the Julian calendar, the new year had been celebrated between March 25 and April 1, at the time of the spring equinox.  With the advent of the Gregorian calendar, the New Year was moved to January 1st, but the news was not immediately understood by everyone.  Whether out of ignorance or for the sake of tradition, some people continued to celebrate April 1st.  They were viewed as April fools.

In France and Italy, April Fool’s Day or April 1st is called, respectively, poisson d’avril and pesce d’aprile (April fish).   Kids stick a paper fish to the backs of their unsuspecting friends and yell “Poisson d’avril” or “Pesce d’aprile” when they discover the prank.  Besides the story of the bishop, why fish?  One theory takes us back to the time of Cleopatra and her roman lover Mark Anthony.  During a fishing competition, to avoid a humiliating defeat, he had secretly instructed a slave to dive underwater and put fish on his hook.  Discovering his deception, Cleopatra, as a hoax, arranged to have a giant fish covered in crocodile skin attached to his line.   (Crocodiles are not denizens of the Nile.)

Here are 10 favorite pranks over time:

1857:  The citizens of London were invited on April 1 to visit the Tower of London to attend the washing of the white lions who lived there.   A large crowd gathered…the joke was repeated over the centuries.

1957:  A BBC documentary revealed sensational news:  Spaghetti grows on trees.  It showed a spaghetti plantation in Lugano, Switzerland, where farmers laid out huge strands of pasta on the ground to dry.  Farmers there were worried about an impending frost.  Viewers called the British broadcaster to ask for instructions on how to grow the special tree.

1961:  The newspaper, La notte, announced that Milan had passed a law requiring everyone who owned a horse to affix a license plate that would be recognizable when the horse was trotting about the streets.

1992:  All passengers who arrived at the Los Angeles airport were greet with a huge sign saying, “Welcome to Chicago.”

1995:  Traditionally, Venetian gondolas are black, in memory of the dead from the plague that struck the lagoon in the 16th century.  Twenty-five years ago, on April 1, the Gazzettino di Venezia announced that they would all be painted in bright colors by decision of the city council, in order to better meet the taste of tourists.

1998:  The American newspaper, USA Today, published a full-page ad of Burger King’s announcement that it had found a solution for the nearly 1.5 million left-handed clients who visit the chain’s locations every day:  The Whopper for southpaws, easier to hold and eat with the left hand, and with less spillage.

2000: The Independent, a British online publisher, reported strange news:  Viagra for rabbits.

2010: Google introduced Google Translate for Animals, a translation service from any human language to any animal language, and vice versa.

2013: Saclà, an Italian pasta maker introduced Twitteroni to the British market:  a pasta in the form of letters and hashtags

2015:  YouTube offered a video of the Reclinomax, a revolution in fitness, which features a comfortable armchair in which you train while sleeping.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Abitudini, Animali, Cucina italiana, Differenze culturali, English, Foto, La Gente, Storia | Leave a comment

Le guerre dei biscotti

Posted on March 19, 2020 by babbityjean

Sono le due superpotenze alimentari italiane: Ferrero e Barilla. Entrambe condividono una lunga storia di redini tramandate ai membri della famiglia da generazioni. Entrambe si sono allargate ed hanno acquisito molte altre attività lungo gli anni. Entrambe hanno strategie di marketing aggressive. E ora potrebbero essere in rotta di collisione.

Barilla fu fondata nel 1877 come negozio di panetteria a Parma da Pietro Barilla. Ora il pronipote Guido dirige la multinazionale, che è il più grande produttore di pasta al mondo. Con 120 diversi tipi e forme di pasta, Barilla controlla il 40-45% del mercato italiano ed il 35% del mercato statunitense. (In realtà, la maggior parte della Barilla negli Stati Uniti viene prodotta in Iowa o New York utilizzando prodotti locali.)

Il pasticciere Pietro Ferrero fondò la sua azienda nel 1946 ad Alba, in Piemonte. Il nipote Giovanni ora è alla guida del secondo maggiore produttore di cioccolato e azienda dolciaria al mondo. Pietro ha gettato le basi per l’attuale Nutella.  In Italia dopo la seconda guerra mondiale, il cioccolato era molto costoso. Pietro decise di preparare del cioccolato per i bambini ad un prezzo accessibile. Combinò il cioccolato e le nocciole per creare una delizia che lui chiamava “gianduia”. Successivamente divenne una crema spalmabile chiamata “Supercrema”. La ricetta venne modificata e ribattezzata, e il primo barattolo di Nutella uscì dalla fabbrica Ferrero nel 1964. Fu un successo istantaneo.

Nel frattempo, Barilla ha lavorato duramente sulle sue linee di prodotti. Nel 1974 Barilla lanciò Mulino Bianco, una filiale che produce gli iconici biscotti per la colazione. Con nomi di biscotti come Taralucci, Batticuori, Abbracci, Galletti e Girotondi, Mulino Bianco afferma che gli italiani consumano più biscotti degli americani!  Dopotutto se si intinge un biscotto nel proprio cappuccino mattutino e se ne accoppia uno all’espresso pomeridiano, e poi un altro con lo spuntino dei bambini, potrebbe esserci della verità in questa affermazione.

Nel 1983 Barilla e Mulino Bianco lanciarono il Pan di Stelle come biscotti al cioccolato per la colazione. Ma non è stato fino al 2018 che le cose hanno iniziato a scaldarsi. Barilla ha introdotto vasetti di Crema di Pan di Stelle, una crema spalmabile fatta con 100% di nocciole e cioccolato. Fino a quel momento, le due società avevano rispettato lo spazio altrui. Ora il gigante di Nutella non se ne sta con le mani in mano ed ha deciso di contrattaccare questa invasione di campo.

Ferrero tiene alla riservatezza per proteggersi dallo spionaggio industriale. Il fondatore dell’azienda ha rilasciato due interviste in tutta la sua vita; una è stata pubblicata postuma. La società non ha mai tenuto una conferenza stampa e non consente ai media di visitare i suoi impianti. I prodotti Ferrero sono realizzati con macchine progettate da un dipartimento di ingegneria interno.  Non sorprende quindi la mossa successiva. Ferrero ha testato tranquillamente il suo nuovo prodotto in altri paesi. Quindi ha attraversato il confine italiano e ha lanciato il suo nuovo biscotto alla Nutella in Francia per iniziare a diffondere il brusio e domande tra gli italiani che vivono e viaggiano all’estero. Poi, dopo aver scatenato una grande campagna pubblicitaria con enormi annunci nelle stazioni della metropolitana, sugli schermi televisivi e cartelloni pubblicitari appesi nella principale stazione ferroviaria di Roma, Ferrero ha portato i biscotti Nutella a casa in Italia nel novembre 2019. La campagna è stata un enorme successo: quasi 6 milioni di pacchi sono stati venduti nelle prime quattro settimane. I biscotti volavano dagli scaffali ed erano difficili da tenere in magazzino.

Ma Barilla ha risposto subito.  Grazie alla sua società Mulino Bianco e il suo marchio Pan di Stelle, ha svelato Pan di Stelle Biscocrema durante una conferenza stampa in un bar sul tetto a Milano. L’evento è stato servito con biscotti e il bar è stato decorato con luci a forma di stella che riflettono i biscotti che sono sormontati da una solida stella di crema.

Ironia della sorte, entrambe le società competono anche a livello ambientale. Ad esempio, Barilla ha investito in una fondazione dedicata alla sostenibilità ambientale e promuove i suoi rifiuti di olio di palma, un grasso saturo di Nutella, che ha portato a una deforestazione devastante. I prodotti Nutella utilizzano un quarto della fornitura mondiale di nocciole. E mentre i noccioli sono resistenti alle malattie e alla siccità, gli ambientalisti italiani danno la colpa ad entrambe le aziende per la piantagione aggressiva di nocciole che riduce la biodiversità del paese. È anche ironico che in un paese al quale associamo a pomodori maturi, pasta fresca, olio d’oliva e una sana dieta mediterranea, le merende stanno diventando più diffuse insieme a corpi più corpulenti, specialmente tra i bambini.

 

Posted in Abitudini, Cucina italiana, Foto, Italia, Italiano, La Gente, Piemonte, Storia | Leave a comment

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