In the world of Cannoli and Maritozzi

Created: 04/07/2022 13:03

By: Sandra Sedlmaier

The “Branca” staff: Antonia Wild (3rd from left) communicated primarily in English.

© private

19-year-old Antonia Wild from Traubing worked for three weeks in a Roman pastry shop.

A special experience for the prospective confectioner.

Traubing/Rome

– Actually, Antonia Wild didn't want to go to Rome at all.

"I let myself be persuaded - and now I'm very happy that I did it." The 19-year-old from Traubing is learning at the Pöckinger Konditorei Robert Müller and is in her second year of training.

Through connections at her school, she got the chance to work for three weeks in the Italian capital, starting in mid-May, in a typical Roman pasticceria, as confectioneries are called in Italy.

This was extremely interesting for Antonia Wild in terms of the craftsmanship, but even more so in terms of the work processes: “The work there was much more relaxed.” The stay also gave her self-esteem a real boost: “They wanted me to stay with them and continue working .

Or at least come back after the apprenticeship,” says the young woman.

that showed her

The contact to Pasticceria Branca near the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore came about through the Munich vocational school that Antonia Wild attends.

The school covered most of the costs for the stay abroad with an Erasmus Plus grant.

First Salerno was discussed, which would have been interesting as a classic bathing resort, but then it became Rome.

At least for Antonia Wild - other schoolmates went to Gothenburg, France and Greece.

"My boss was immediately enthusiastic, he was in France during his training."

The Traubing native lived in an apartment hotel with three other aspiring confectioners and 18 future tourism salespeople.

That in itself was an experience: navigating the big city and supporting yourself.

"It took me about half an hour to get to my pasticceria by train and bus," says Antonia Wild.

A colleague who worked in an ice cream parlor needed much longer "if the train came."

The daily working time was four hours, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

They were obviously mostly stress-free, as the young woman reports.

"In contrast to my workplace here, it was perfectly fine there to just stand around." While there is always something to do in Pöcking, cleaning, putting something in the refrigerator or tidying up, it is in the small pasticceria because of the square been limited.

"There was a table, and when it was clean, there was nothing left to clean." The amount of work depended on the demand: "If something from the café counter was gone, we made it again." That could be filled with different creams Be cream puffs or classic Italian cannoli.

The latter are pastry rolls filled with ricotta and cream.

Antonia Wild learned how to prepare them in Rome.

Just like how to make maritozzi, yeast dough balls filled with cream.

Other than that, she didn't get to know many recipes.

“The work processes were completely different.

The doughs were prepared overnight,” she says.

"When I came at 8 a.m., the pastry chef Patrizia was always there.

I couldn't figure out when she started the whole time."

Because there was the language barrier: Antonia Wild hardly speaks Italian, and the colleagues in Italy could hardly speak English.

"In the end, however, we understood each other quite well," says the woman from Traubing.

And she now understands so much of the language that she bought a baking book with the most important recipes, including panettone - in Italian.

She doesn't want to miss out on the experience.

Rome is a great city, "the whole city is in ruins, there is something to see everywhere".

In the afternoons she used the time with her classmates for sightseeing, every day there was an ice cream.

"I promised my parents that I would eat ice cream every day and send at least one photo of it as a sign of life," says the 19-year-old.

She stuck it out, except for one evening.

"The next day I ate two ice cream cones."

When it came to ice cream, the recipe was also very unusual.

Antonia Wild has fond memories of the lavender ice cream with white peach and the rosemary ice cream with honey and lemon.

That was a pleasure - like the whole stay in Rome.