Nuts About Nutella: a chat with Gigi Padovani, the world’s Nutella expert

Few foods have captured the appetite of the world. In order to be so universal and international, those few foods must be quite special. Nutella is one of those internationally loved foods. I had the unique opportunity to speak with the world’s most knowledgeable Nutella lover, Gigi Padovani. Throughout his 30 years working for the major Italian newspaper, La Stampa as a leading writer and food critic, he gained a passion for the history of food. He has written about twenty books alongside his wife on food culture and history. His latest book, “Nutella World” covers the whole history of Nutella from it’s conception to the way it spread across the world and is now a staple in millions of homes across the world. 

 

Nutella’s story began in 1923 in the Dogliani hills, near Alba in northern Italy. This part of Italy is known for Dolcetto wine and other specialty foods. Two brothers, Pietro and Giovani Ferrero were born here, and those brothers created culinary magic. Pietro opened a small pastry shop and ran it for several years selling panettoni, which are sweet cakes originally from Milano. They are usually eaten around Christmas and New Years. Later, Pietro came up with an idea in response to how the children in post-war Italy could not enjoy chocolate because of how expensive it was. He set out to make a chocolate treat for the children that was affordable. Pietro brought hazelnuts and chocolate together to make a sweet solid chocolate treat that he called a “giandujot”. This became Nutella’s very first ancestor. Later the giandujot became a spread, which was called ‘supercrema’. Later it was refined into what we know today, which is Nutella, the brand we know and love. The company is still run by a Ferrero today, his name is Giovanni Ferrero, the grandson of Pietro and son of Michele. 

I had some questions about Nutella and was able to interview Gigi over Skype. 

Nutella’s ancestor was called Supercrema. In Italy, companies were not allowed to name any product starting with “super”, so they had to think of something else, something more original, that would stick and would be a universal name across the world. In 1964, Michele Ferrero, the son of Pietro who had taken over the company, came up with the name Nutella. Nut, because of the hazelnuts in the cream and ella gave a sweet feminine ending that makes you fall in love with the product. A lot of the success of the product can be attributed to the brand name. It’s lovable, memorable, and sweet, just like the creamy hazelnut spread. 

 

Nutella was introduced in the United States around 1983 by students and soldiers who spent time in Europe and tried Nutella there. They fell in love with the product and brought it back to the US with them. Nutella is a lovable product and a lovable brand. It was originally a niche product, and the first Nutella factory opened in New Jersey, and it was very small. It quickly spread all across America, and in 2006 a big factory opened in Ontario, Canada for the production of Nutella in North America. This is still the factory that the Nutella you see on the shelves in America comes from. Nutella to Go, became quite popular in America, and it is the most sold product at the checkout lines in Walmarts. 

 

Yes, Nutella, similarly to Coca Cola, is a love brand. Although it has not been around for as long as Coca Cola—Nutella has only been around for 50 years—it is still known in almost every country across the world. 30 million people “like” Nutella on social media. Nutella has been able to stay so popular and been able to flourish as a company because of how they adjust their marketing to the spirit of the times. The product and the label and the mission has stayed the same, but the way they advertise the product conforms to the time. They have really taken advantage of social media, and used it to become as popular as they are today. Nutella is a love brand, people have made Nutella part of their identity. Nutella is the second most liked food on Facebook, after Oreos. 

 

People eat Nutella on bread after Ramadan. That is a pretty interesting fact. On February 2nd in France, Crepe day is celebrated, and it is called Chandeleur. On this day, the most Nutella is sold in France because of all of the Nutella crepes that are made. Nutella also makes special edition containers, some of them are huge, and these are usually sold on Christmas. Also, everybody has a Nutella glass that they keep in their homes and use for every day uses. I’ve had one in my home since I was a small boy. Everyone in Italy has one of these glasses, some people collect them. Nutella has truly made their way into every Italian home, and now into the rest of the world as well. Ferrero is so large that the company owns one third of the world’s hazelnuts for their Nutella production. They introduced hazelnuts into parts of the world where hazelnuts were not previously grown because of the demand. Previously the hazelnut harvesting season was limited to August and September. Now, they can be harvested all year round.

 

Nutella has factories across the world. Ferrero has twenty factories and of those twenty, eleven produce Nutella. The others are dedicated to Ferrero Rocher and Tic Tac. But as far as I know, they use the same recipe for every country. I guess we will have to do a taste test for each one to really find out!

 

Nutella was the first one to make such a spread. They created a new category of food, and now some artisanal chocolate makers such as Guido Gobino from and Guido Castagna, both from Turin have made their own giandua spread. In their recipes, they use mostly hazelnuts in their spreads where Nutella only consists of 18% hazelnuts. The texture is also very different from Nutella. They are based off of Nutella, but are quite different and are more expensive. 

 

In Italy, because many adults, like me, were raised eating Nutella everyday, we have a soft spot in our hearts for it, so we will eat it today and feel nostalgic and reminisce on our childhoods when eating it. Most American adults do not have this nostalgic feeling when eating Nutella, but many adults still love and crave it. There are Nutella bars, which are dedicated areas to Nutella products such as crepes and Nutella pastries opening in Eataly’s across America, the first one in Chicago and now one just opened in the Eataly in New York City. Now more American adults are eating it for sure, and of course it is always a favorite among the children.

 

Tiramisu! What is the most popular Italian dessert? Tiramisu of course! Not many people are aware that tiramisu is served everywhere across the world, including Japan! Every culture has their own spin on tiramisu. It is a very loved dessert, and I want to write a book about it. Many people have the idea that it is a very old Italian specialty, but in reality it has only been around since the 1960s! It is a very interesting subject that has a lot to be discovered about… so stay tuned!