Panettone traditionally comes from the North of Italy, but the Fiasconaro family started making the Christmas cake in Sicily in the 1980s, and now exports it to 65 countries.
Fiasconaro
Head pastry chef Nicola Fiasconaro first baked panettone in Sicily in 1988. He used a traditional recipe but added manna — a resin from local trees that acts as a natural sweetener.
Fiasconaro
Over time, Fiasconaro added more local ingredients to his panettone, including pistachios, hazelnuts and oranges.
Fiasconaro
Third-generation pastry chef Mario (pictured here) and Nicola Fiasconaro still make their panettone in Castelbuono, near Palermo, where the family bar and ice cream parlor was first opened in 1953. Now, during peak production, they employ over 200 pastry chefs.
Fiasconaro
Fiasconaro makes about 18,000 kilos (about 40,000 lbs) of panettone a day in high season, and production is projected to top 1.7 million kilograms (3.7 million lbs) in 2022.
Fiasconaro
Nicola Fiasconaro (right), 58, was literally born among Sicilian flavors and delicacies: "As my mother was giving birth to me, on the first floor of the building my father was baking pasta di mandorla, filling up cannoli and making cassate siciliane," he says.
Fiasconaro
The Fiasconaro shop is still found in its original location, in the main square of Castelbuono, a town of 9,000 about 50 miles east of Palermo.
