Fruitcake is getting fancy.
Panettone, airy, sweet Italian bread adorned with dried and candied fruits, has long been a Christmas staple. But the cheap-and-cheerful recipe, often priced at around $10 for a round, domed loaf of bread, has received an artistic upgrade in recent years – well worth the price.
Designers like Roberto Cavalli, Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci all package panettone elaborately, as do trendy restaurants, each of which costs around $60 and even more than $100.
“It’s pretty nice, but definitely more than anyone in my family can afford,” said Matt F., an Upper East Sider who is Italian-American and who ordered the $59 limited-production gin at the tony Italian restaurant, St. Ambroise. Have developed a fascination for Pantone. With locations in Manhattan, East Hampton, Milan and Palm Beach.
The 43-year-old grew up eating cheap store-bought panettone from brands like Bouli. But, in 2021, he ordered a slide of panettone after a meal at St. Ambroise and it was changed forever.
“It was so good that I said, ‘Oh hell. I’ll bring one home,'” said Matt, who declined to give his last name for privacy reasons.
St. Ambrose is hardly the only society magnet with an expensive Pantone. Cipriani sells a foe for $65 while designer Roberto Cavalli has created a $130 version from Italy-based artisan pastry shop Olivieri 1882, packaged in a tin with the designer’s signature Ray of Gold print. The $160 version at Gucci Osteria Beverly Hills is sold out.
In Downtown NYC, Una Pizza Napoletana on the Lower East Side makes a $109 lemon-and-dark chocolate panettone that is sold out for purchase onsite, but still Available online through Goldbelly.
Chef/owner Anthony Mangieri defended the cost.
“All of ours are hand-shaped, and made with mother yeast, so it takes several days for the yeast to rise before baking,” he told The Post. We pay attention to every detail of each batch to understand the flour and create the best product. One of the really beautiful ingredients we use is candied lemon peel which is preserved using an ancient French method which takes several days, but the end result is beautiful and clean and very special.
At Travelers Poets & Friends in the West Village, bakers are creating a $65 artisan panettone in two flavors — a traditional loaf made with candied orange and citron, and a hazelnut chocolate panettone.
Each panettone takes two days to make, using live mother yeast grown by master baker Luca Cascella, candied fruits from Northern Italy, hazelnuts from Piedmont and raisins sourced from California vineyards.
“They have been handcrafted with utmost care and attention to detail. They’ve become so popular that we’re now shipping nationwide,” executive chef Ricardo Orfino told The Post.
That Wolf Bakeryhas been selling panettone since 2022, with pop up locations in greenmarkets around Manhattan and Brooklyn. The $65 sweet bread – naturally leavened and made with local butter, dried cherries, pistachios and organic eggs with candied orange peel – sells for all 25. Made within the first hour, a representative for the bakery told The Post.
The luxury panettone boom in the US can be largely traced to 2018, when Oprah From Roy Cake Displayed By Bay Area baker Roy Schwertzapel, who has worked with Thomas Keller of Per Se, Ferran Adrià of El Bulli, and renowned French pastry chef Pierre Hermé.
In 2018, Roy’s Pantone sold for $49.99. They sell for $102 now, and even this year are sold For Christmas until December 2nd.
Panettone sticker shock may be a relatively new phenomenon in America, but the bread has always been decadent, scholars say.
“Panetone was created in the 14th century as a grand, sumptuous, rich special occasion sweet bread, so it’s only fitting that it has regained its former status and glory. As panettone has become more well-known and popular, they have been introducing us to the high quality that has been appreciated in Italy for centuries. Before that we were making so-so panettone industrially,” Francine Sagan, a New York City-based cookbook author and food historian, told The Post. “Even the name is fancy. In Milan dialect, pan de ton means ‘luxury cake.'”
