Andrea e Giacomo Besuschio
173 years. Five generations. Almost two centuries. A story in numbers, that of Pasticceria Besuschio, as well as in names, those of Ambrogio, Guido, Giulio, Attilio, and Andrea. The story of a small pastry shop in the main square of Abbiategrasso, a sober town in the gloomy Milanese hinterland, that became a cult place in the geography of Lombardy’s sweets.
It’s almost 36 years since Andrea, then in his twenties, arrived in the family workshop well aware of his father’s heritage – humility, commitment, respect for raw materials – but realising he wanted something new too. Less empiricism, more rules. Less improvisation, more research.
He was curious «to find out what’s inside a chocolate» and this led him abroad, where he started to collaborate with Valrhona in France. He now says he’s both a pastry chef and a chocolatier and the family business has turned into a temple dedicated to leavened products - panettone, as well as cakes unrelated to holidays such as Krakelè and Fior di Gianduia – as well as cocoa.
His son Giacomo, 24 and a graduate in Food Sciences with a dissertation on new chocolate icings has joined him. The last, essential piece of the family is Roberta, Andrea’s wife and Giacomo’s mother, who takes care of the packaging, following and sometimes influencing their creativity. She’s redesigned the Besuschio logo, which now coexists with the historic one. Hence the two identities of this pastry shop coexist, looking both at the past and at the future.
Has participated in
Identità Milano
Living in Bologna by birth and by choice, she writes about food and all it implies for Munchies Italia, Vice's website dedicated to food, and offline for Gazza Golosa and Dispensa. Her passions include Cynar, biscuits and woods, not necessarily in this order