table talk / By Simona Carini

Bread, Chocolate and Happiness

You want to extract every gram of pleasure from your bar

(Dec. 20, 2007) “Never eat chocolate without bread, young lady!…”

And in two minutes my mouth was full of fresh bread, and melting chocolate… one of the most satisfying things I have ever eaten.

GALLERY >

— MFK Fisher, Serve It Forth

Bread and chocolate is one of the most satisfying things I have ever eaten. However, unlike Ms. Fisher, I did not have to travel half-way across the world from my native country and hike up a French hill on a “bitter February Sunday” to find out how delicious this pairing is. I was born in the right place: Perugia, at walking distance from the Perugina chocolate factory. I grew up in a city where chocolate was a fact of life. I grew up eating bread and chocolate.

One hundred years ago almost to the day, four entrepreneurs started a company in Perugia that made comfits: confetti (sugar-coated whole almonds). They are still a popular confection in Italy, given away on occasions like births, weddings, etc. The company’s original name, Società perugina per la fabbricazione dei confetti, was later shortened into Perugina, a name that survives to this day. Within a few years of being founded, the company moved from its original location in downtown Perugia to a bigger space close to the main train station and also expanded its production line with the inclusion of chocolate, cocoa powder and candies. In the ‘60s it moved to its current location in a town near the city. Today, ownership of the company now resides with the multinational conglomerate Nestlé.

In 1922, the famous Perugina Bacio (kiss) was born. Tradition has it that Bacio was created as a way of making use of hazelnut crumbs that were a byproduct at the factory. Luisa Spagnoli, wife of one of the founders, thought that the granella could be mixed with chocolate and given some shape. At the beginning the chocolate was called Cazzotto (punch) because its shape resembled that of a fist. From a marketing perspective, the name was an unhappy choice and was therefore changed to the endearing Bacio, so that, to purchase one of the tasty morsels, one would ask: “May I have a kiss?”

The love theme is further developed in the love note in several languages that is placed between the chocolate and the unmistakable blue-starred silver wrapping.

You may be wondering where you can buy a Bacio. Unfortunately I have not seen Bacisold in the stores I have visited in Humboldt County. If any reader has, please, let me know. When I am in the Bay Area, I usually get a few Baci from Peaberry’s, a coffee shop on College Avenue in the Rockridge area of Oakland, where they are sold individually. Gift boxes are available from online retailers.

1 2 3 NEXT PAGE >SHARE