Brioches at Jazz Club
– Buongiorno, posso avere una brioche?
– Certo, quale vuoi? Vuota, salata, al cioccolato, alla crema, alla marmellata, integrale al miele o salata ai cereali?
The dialogue above, even if you didn’t understand a word, repeats daily, zillions of times, every morning in Italy.
It’s actually a brief conversation between a sleepy client trying to choose which will be his first meal of the day and the owner of a bar (Note: in Italy, bar is a place where you have breakfast, not a beer).
Usually, the traditional prima colazione is made of one puffy pastry bread like a croissant (which can generally be called “pasta”) and an espresso or cappuccino.
But don’t mix things up: do not mistake cornetto or brioche, with the buttery and savory French croissant. The first basic difference is the fact that here the dough is much lighter. The second one is that here it usually comes with a filling – the classic ones are pastry cream (alla crema), jam (alla marmellata) and chocolate (al cioccolato).
Then someone will tell me:
– Hold on! But there is the pain au chocolat in France!
Right. But if the delicious French beauty is almost a square filled with pure chocolate, the Italian one is a cornetto filled with Nutella – that’s right; here in Italy when one says of chocolate in the morning, he’s talking about Nutella.
Simplesmente NUTELLA
– Ok, but I’ve been to Italy and I ate a brioche without filling…
Yeah, you’re right again. And to be more precise there are two versions: the sweet one (“vuota”, or “empty”) and the savory one (“salata”). As for the first one, it’s called “vuota” exactly because it’s the base for all the fillings that will come next – the little breads are manually filled and in the best bars just moments before they’re served to the client.
To make things ever more interesting, they recently invented two variations: the whole-wheat brioches, that can be savory and served with little grains on top (my favorite ones) or sweetened with honey.
Since we’re talking about the traditional breakfast menu, it’s not surprising that the supermarket shelves are packed with an incredible variety of ready-made products. They are not necessarily bad, but it’s not the same as eating something that just came out of the oven. Yes, because the best bars bake them every morning (at my favorite one, the Jazz Club, the owner doesn’t even use frozen products; his supplier comes at 6 a.m. everyday with hundreds of fresh brioches).
For all such reasons, beginning the day with a warm cornetto that just got out of the oven means a starting with the right foot – and no one will blame you if you start looking forward to the next morning right after.
Buongiorno!
FloCiBO 