2023-12-04 16:11:42
by Luigi Ippolito
The made in Italy dessert is the new status symbol of British people who want to appear chic: it has far beaten the traditional English party dessert in luxury supermarkets and restaurants
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
LONDON – Goodbye Christmas pudding, this is the Christmas of panettone in London. The data speak clearly: from Selfridges to Waitrose – the luxury supermarkets – this year the Made in Italy dessert with raisins and candied fruit has largely destroyed the sales of the traditional English holiday dessert, that deadly mixture of dried fruit and liqueur which goes boiled for hours before being served.
At Selfridges the demand for panettone is so strong that they expect to sell three times as many as Christmas pudding, while at Waitrose our Christmas dessert is up 24% compared to last year. Supermarkets have rushed to offer every type of variation (up to the horror of the cinnamon bunettone, a mix of panettone and cinnamon focaccia): Selfridges has added the taste of panettone to other products too, from chocolate to tea, and has they even put a dedicated advent calendar on sale, so that you can enjoy a slice of it every day.
Several top restaurants have followed suit and are offering our Christmas cake as dessert. As a Selfridges spokesperson commented to the Times, just five years ago the English wouldn’t even have been able to pronounce the word panettone or didn’t even know what it was. This year we expect to sell 120% more than last year.
But it is significant that this fever has hit high-end supermarkets such as Waitrose and Selfridges, both meccas of the aspirational bourgeoisie, which seems to be the one most conquered by panettone. And it is interesting that already last month the greatest English esthete had published his annual common list in which he included Italian food among the things indicative of vulgarity (understood as the desire to appear): Nicholas Ponsonby Haslam, 84-year-old interior designer and arbiter elegantarum , seemed to target the passion for everything Italian, pointing out Puglia, our food and anything Aperol as rude. It must be said that we were in good company: the Princes of Wales in blue and Wimbledon also appeared on the list, as well as ordering lobsters, podcasts and even Choupette, Karl Lagerfeld’s cat.
It was a game – which the newspapers in London discussed for days – also because the list was published on a kitchen towel (which couldn’t be more common): but which in reality targets the tastes of the aspirational bourgeoisie, who tries to imitate the upper class without succeeding. Now the confirmation from Christmas shopping: Waitrose panettone is the new status symbol for those who want to appear chic. The very heavy Christmas pudding remains the prerogative of the people (but in all probability also what is served at Sandringham, at the royal Christmas table: noblesse oblige, nothing but candied fruit).
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December 4, 2023 (modified December 4, 2023 | 3:51 pm)
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