Francesca Morandin

Consultant, food technician... But there’s another word that describes Francesca Morandin’s work best of all: “yeast expert”, a word that perhaps is not poetic but recalls an ancient tradition and a little magic, and does not lack in charm. She is the specialist called to called to guarantee that the dough will not sag like an unsuccessful soufflé: a job that could make one think of decades of experience when in fact she has a precocious talent. After all, she was born among yeast. It was 1964 when her dad Rolando and her mum Rosi, originally from Veneto, opened a pastry shop called Morandin in St Vincent, in Valle d’Aosta, which they still run, with the help of their other child, Mauro. Francesca was born 22 years later, in 1986, and the family shop was her personal amusement park: «I used to play with miniature pizzas, cakes and then I would even work at the counter».

Her father always paid lots of attention to the world of yeast: so it is difficult not to say that this profession runs in the family. Gallehault indeed was the trip to France, to Valrhona, where Rolando Morandin had to give a course on the leavening of panettone: who better than his girl, born in Chatillon, who had always lived in the Vallée and was therefore bilingual, could come useful to translate into French? It was love at first sight: the world of leavened products entered the heart of this young woman and never left it.

Her later studies seconded her vocation: «My dad strongly insisted that I get a deeper knowledge of the scientific elements behind this profession, since I had already learnt the practical foundations at home. I knew that a particular thing was happening: bent over my books, I understood why». She completed with honours a BA in “Food sciences and technologies for restaurants” from the University of Torino; and again with honours a post-graduate course in Milan. Her dissertation, "Production of gluten-free bread with the use of acid dough", resulted in a registered patent: «It was 2011, I wanted to find a way of obtaining mother yeast without gluten, starting from Rolando», which in this case is not her dad, but the name of the wheat yeast her family has been cultivating for many years. She succeeded.

Today Francesca Morandin collaborates mostly with Molino Quaglia and Valrhona.