PWater & Chocolate? The perfect combination. He knows it well Diego Crosara, Pastry Art Director of Marquises 1824a historic Milanese pastry shop, which this year had an idea: no bunnies and lambs, but a flight of swallows which, this time, bring about spring (and make you think of the wonders of Willy Wonka).
The display is already delicious (to eat!): a large chocolate house perched on a branch houses a nest with a precious decorated Easter egg, while the suspended swallows seem to be really flying. Meanwhile they have already arrived from Milan to London in a corner at Harrod’s. Plus, there’s some really special chocolate.
Can you tell us about it?
«It comes from our supply chain, from the plantation in Venezuela, a grand cru 74 percent cocoa mass with aromatic notes of red fruits, spaced dried fruit, banana, tobacco, an extraordinary raw material. We worked on it for two years.”
Hand-decorated Easter eggs by Marchesi 1824.
But you won’t just have 74 percent. There are many flavors.
«There’s something for everyone. Eggs with white chocolate, milk chocolate, stracciatella. Eggs stuffed with pistachio and raspberry, hazelnut and lemon, almond and orange, pecan and caramel. And, apart from the quality, we have created beautiful handcrafted decorations, an invitation to spring, to rebirth.”
Diego Crosara, Pastry Art Director of Marchesi 1824.
It’s almost a shame to eat them. How are they born?
«With a drawing on paper, which is then passed on to the decorators. It takes four to six hours to create an egg full of details: small roses, leaves, festoons, crowns, peach blossoms, geometries.”
Chocolate also in Easter doves?
“Certain. With cherries, gianduia and orange, peaches and apricots. Obviously we have Millefeuille and Pastiera (otherwise what would Easter be?), a dessert that is not at all easy. Cooking the grain is the real stumbling block. For those who want to try it at home, I recommend buying the ready-made one, so you don’t go wrong…”.
Marchesi 1824: a hand-decorated dove
You have just launched the magazine Chocolate Chronicles. For chocolate addicts?
«It is actually a storytelling project conceived as a theatrical comedy in four acts. Chocolate is liked, everyone eats it willingly but few really know it: where it comes from, how it is prepared… The first issue, Essence, is dedicated to raw materials. For Design Week, the second chapter, Tradition: the elegance of chocolate meets the legacy of Marchesi 1824’s fresh pastries. With summer, comes Summer Indulgence, the freshest and lightest nuances of chocolate through creamed ice creams, gourmet ice lollies and summer panettone with apricot and lemon. In October Grand Finale: pralines and bars entirely decorated by hand.”
Your decorations are little masterpieces. To study. Is it possible?
«We organize masterclasses open to everyone, adults and children. With great success. We teach how to use the croissant, the piping bag, we explain how to move the hands. For the Easter masterclass the decorator worked for 40-45 minutes with a two-three kilo egg. They told us it was relaxing like doing yoga, but delicious. We also had 15 children, starting from the age of six, and we couldn’t hear a fly. The mothers said: “Let’s bring them here every day!”. Power of chocolate.”
