There's a saying: not everyone can like me, I'm not Nutella... Since 2007, February 5 has been World Hazelnut Buttercream Day (or Chocolate Hazelnut Buttercream?).
Once upon a time, a quarter of a century ago, there was a Europe where people, just like today, loved chocolate. Surely Arthur Gombóc's family tree can be traced back there, too, if we do a little research. The sublime, and by the way, rather cheaply priced confectionery came to the continent from the British colonies, so England understandably played a key role in importing it.
Yes, but then Napoleon came along, who didn't like to lose, and in order to keep England under his thumb, he put a trade embargo on the island country, so that the resulting economic difficulties would be his undoing. Thanks to the boycott, the supply of cocoa and chocolate in Europe became very difficult.
Sometimes a little thing like that can get people out of their funk more than a major cut... The price of sweets had skyrocketed, so they had to slowly find something to enrich the gold price of the delicacy. Who else could have come up with the solution but the Italians, who value the pleasures of the table above all else? Talia's pastry chefs mixed cocoa paste with finely ground hazelnuts and formed it into a loaf. Once hardened, they sliced it and placed it on bread to make gianduja. Makes you think of Napoleon in a different way, doesn't it?
Time went by, there was a little peace, but then again a man came along who wanted to rule the world, his name was Hitler, World War II broke out and with it another chocolate shortage. And then there was a man who ran a bakery in the town of Alba, one of Italy's peanut-producing regions. One day he dusted off his gianduja recipe and sold a huge batch in 1946. Not satisfied with the consistency of the product, he tweaked it to make it creamier and by 1951 he was selling it under the name Supercrema. His name was Pietro Ferrero. Where did I hear that name?
Boys always want to outdo their parents... Pietro also had a son, Michele, who was determined to make the product great. He tweaked the ingredients a little, gave it the name Nutella and on 20 April 1964, the sweet was launched on its first European and then world tour.
Since then, Nutella's popularity has skyrocketed, and there's no one who doesn't love it. There are other nut creams available in many countries, but so far, I don't think Nutella beats it in taste or popularity.
There are many uses for it, if anyone wants a better use than stuffing it in with a tablespoon on a rainy afternoon. You can spread it on bread, it's delicious on croissants, you can put it in a big squirrel cake, and a friend of mine makes nutella bejgles every Christmas.
There is no hiding the fact that Greenpeace and the WWF have come down hard on Ferrero and with it Nutella over one of the main ingredients in the chocolate cream, palm oil. Nutella, according to their own press material, is now emphatic that its vegetable oil is 100%-certified as coming from individually managed, sustainable farms, and this effort - again, I quote their sources - is recognised by the two environmental giants mentioned above.
