Pandoro () is an Italian cuisine sweet bread, most popular around Christmas and New Year. Typically a product of the city of Verona, Veneto, pandoro traditionally has an eight-pointed shape.
History
The first citation of a dessert clearly identified as pandoro dates to the 18th century. The dessert certainly figured in the cuisine of the Venetian aristocracy.
Venice was the principal market for spices as late as the 18th century, as well as for the sugar that by then had replaced honey in European pastries and bread made from leavened dough. It was at
Verona, in Venetian territory, that the formula for making pandoro was developed and perfected, a process that required a century. The modern history of this dessert bread began there on October 30, 1894, when Domenico Melegatti obtained a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially. Domenico Melegatti formed a pandoro company in 1894,
, which was declared bankrupt 29 May 2018,
despite a Maltese equity fund funded Christmas 2017 direct-to-retail campaign.
The feuding Ronca (70%) and Turco (30%) families from the Verona area, brought to crisis.
In 2018, the Spezzapria family bought the company assets of
Melegatti 1894 S.p.A. from bankruptcy trustees for €13.5m, as the only bidder in the second auction, the first auction ended with no bidders.
In 2025, the assets of
Melegatti 1894 S.p.A. were acquired by Irish
Valeo Foods, a
Bain Capital company.
See also
Further reading
External links
