Vincenzo Tiri awarded by the Gazzetta for the best panettone: “Dedicated to Alfonso Pepe”

Vincenzo Tiri wins the Gazzetta 2025 competition hands down, achieving his third victory in 13 editions. The double that launched his career was 10 years ago: 2014-2015. Then it aroused amazement that a Lucanian pastry chef could create the best panettone in Italy. Today that Tiri belongs to that small circle of artisans who have changed the leavened symbol of Milan and the holidays, no one can be surprised. If anything, it is surprising that the third victory took so long to arrive.

What have you done in these 10 years?

“I remained true to myself and to my three mixes. I didn’t change anything to win again but this success is very important to me for a very intimate reason.”

“This is Alfonso Pepe who passed away in 2020 from an incurable disease at just 54 years old. For me he was more than a friend, he was a teacher. In the first 4 editions of the competition we had won twice each. I remember that one day, in his campaign, we were joking about who would take home the third triumph. We said to each other that it would be the perfect conclusion of a shared journey, because panettone must unite and not divide.”

For a few years, however, he chose not to do any more competitions…

“Yes, I had decided to move away, but this year I thought of returning precisely because I wanted to honor the promise I had made to Alfonso many years ago. I dedicate this victory, which I have sought and hoped for so much, to him. I still feel his presence alive.”

He said he remained faithful to the three doughs. Nothing has changed in ten years?

“Well, it’s clear that you always do research and every year we have to struggle with a thousand variables: the choice of flour and butter, eggs that reach crazy prices like this year. But, in the end, I understood that the only real secret of panettone is the sourdough starter. My commitment therefore is to dominate the sourdough starter and not let it dominate me.”

Ten years ago the wave of artisanal panettone began and put the industry on the ropes. Today everyone does it…

“We are losing focus on who really makes panettone. I am a leavener and I only do this 365 days a year. Of course, December is the most intense period, but my research begins in January and lasts all year.”

You opened the Panettoneria in Potenza. But do you always think about panettone?

“It’s actually a bit of an obsession for me. Panettoneria is a very complex format on which I worked a lot. To be able to make 100 gram panettone and pandoro, for example, I had to create silicone molds with Pavoni. The ice cream is made with panettone. The pralines have panettone inside…”.

Still sleeping in the lounge chair in the lab?

“For a month yes, I’ll take a few naps while the panettone is baking…”.

Doesn’t he come home at night?

“I close the laboratory at 11pm, I go home to take a shower and sleep for a few hours. At 3am I wake up and go back to the laboratory. The employees arrive shortly after, at 5am”.

Are these rhythms necessary?

“There is the dough in the morning, the cooking in the afternoon, the panettone rests overnight so that it can be packaged and shipped in the morning. In short, everything is stuck together, delays are not allowed and I am obsessive: I want control of every phase. And luckily I have my brother Giuseppe by my side, without him everything would be much more difficult.”

Many artisans now make important numbers. What is the limit to preserve quality?

“The limit is imposed by work. My process is entirely manual, I haven’t even automated the trolleys that turn the panettone.”

That is, in all these years you haven’t added anything modern?

“Only the proofers that better control temperatures and the rotary ovens that make cooking uniform.”

This year half of the panettoni in the competition were undercooked, if not completely raw…

“The idea of ​​a moist and delicious product has now been taken to the extreme, bringing it almost to raw. But panettone must be well cooked and have structure. It is not a large brioche. In reality, something could also be said about the aromas…”.

“We are getting used to artificial aromas, but in panettone you must smell the yeast, the butter, a good candied fruit. I remember the first years of the competition. Pepe’s panettone smelled of the citrus paste he made, Bonanomi’s of butter, they were real aromas, clean aromas.”

There is a lot of talk about enzymes, a natural product used to extend the life of panettone.

“I don’t use them, I have a 40-day expiration date, what’s the point? I tell retailers that I can only ship at the end of November. And even for foreign countries I only send by air.”

How do you see your future?

“I’ve given myself priorities. I want to dedicate more time to my wife Angela and my two children, Caterina, 4, and Michele, 1. Who knows what they’ll grow up to be, in the meantime they’re growing up in the pastry shop.”