via Anfossi, 10 Milano T. +39.02.55194448 eknam@eknam.com
Ernst Knam is German and was born in 1963. Luckily for us Italians, when he decided to leave Germany he chose our country, as opposed to anywhere else, to unleash all his genius as a pastry-chef, a vocation discovered thanks to his mother, considering that his father would have like him to become a florist so that he could take over the family flower shop. His mother on the other had wanted a son capable of making her delicious cakes every Sunday, because she was tired of cooking all the time.
His first experience dates back to 1986, with a long series of starred restaurants in Germany, Scotland, Switzerland and England, before arriving in Milan and at Gualtiero Marchesi in 1989. Three years at Divino and in 1992 he opened the two-windowed venue in Porta Vittoria which, 13 years later, is still the home of absolute mouth-wateringly sugary perdition: L’Antica Arte del Dolce, where that adjective, antique, shouldn’t be considered as synonymous with old, stale, mouldy. Antique in the sense of the millenary art of making, thinking of and moulding cakes, biscuits, creams, ice-creams and desserts. Antique is the method, the habit of delight our palates and those of our friends, guests, relatives and loved ones, but the art is always alive, capable of renewal.
The same Ernst in 2004 launched his ice-cream, Giolito, an absolutely natural colour and preservative-free product also available for wholesale. Iced goodness in large quantities and not just for a micro-minority capable of getting to Via Anfossi. Knam’s secret, in addition to curiosity and an artistic sense, is the unchanged capacity to have fun working, because he can turn out the desserts he likes best, turning a dream into a sugary reality. Some of his preparations, like his chocolate and pear cake and his apple and rosemary cake, are absolute masterpieces, like Tiramisù or Tarte Tatin. There’s one thing that he won’t ever accept: that the customer doesn’t give him enough time to do things properly, the way they should be done. They want everything in two minutes, when a dessert requires time and patience.
by
born in Milan in March 1955, at Il Giornale for 31 years dividing himself between sports and food, since 2004 he's the creator and curator of Identità Golose. blog www.paolomarchi.it instagram instagram.com/oloapmarchi
Please fill in the fields below to search our Protagonists' database.
Massimo Bottura and Davide Oldani at Olmo in Cornaredo. The chef from Modena shows the gift the school gave him, a work dedicated to him by artist Maurizio Galimberti
Gualtiero Marchesi portrayed by Matteo Cherubino
A preview of Expo at the Food&Wine Festival