Once upon a time, there was a young boy from Italy. His name was Nicola Olivieri. Born and raised in Arzignano, a town in the Veneto region in northeastern Italy, Olivieri grew up in a bakery, watching his family bake bread "like it was normal".
He didn't always want to follow in the footsteps of his great-great-grandfather, Luigi Olivieri, and tried to break tradition when he was a teenager. But after listening to his father's advice, he travelled to Australia to perfect his skills and now continues his internationally revered bakery, , in Italy.
If you think Australian Easter hot cross buns are a little prosaic, know that this little baked good, as well as the humble almond croissant, helped to inspire Olivieri's baking at Olivieri 1882. The bakery is known for its exceptional leavened bread using lievito madre (meaning mother yeast and which is a sourdough starter), which it turns into sweet breads like Christmas panettone and Easter colomba (dove-shaped pastry).
"I grew up in Olivieri 1882's kitchen, watching my family knead and mix and bake bread, so it was all very normal to me," Olivieri says.
He initially didn't want to follow in his family's footsteps and become a baker. "But after a year abroad in Australia where I worked in a family bakery very similar to mine, I realised I could lead Olivieri 1882's evolution, maintaining our traditions while giving my own creative spin to things."
Australia has a shorter history with baked goods compared with some European countries, but to Olivieri, it was the place that made him better at his craft.
"I was extremely lucky to work with a family bakery that mirrored my own family's business back home in Arzignano. The business was steeped in history with a modern, forward-thinking mentality, and it painted a picture for me (as to) what I could transform our bakery into."
He was also introduced to new products and techniques. "For example, the double-baked croissant and hot cross buns. I returned home to Italy brimming with ideas and inspiration and a plan to revamp Olivieri 1882."
I was extremely lucky to work with a family bakery that mirrored my own family's business back home in Arzignano.
"I travelled to Australia when I was quite young and it was my first experience far from home away from my family. The bakery I worked at was a much larger scale (in terms of) production than my family's bakery, Olivieri 1882, and when I arrived I only knew how to bake bread and how to execute a recipe but that was about it," he says.
"The experience absolutely not only cemented my passion for baking but also introduced me to my love of the business side of running a bakery."
Nicola Olivieri (right) helping to bake with his family as a child. Source: Supplied
The rest is history but still worth telling
Olivieri's great-great-grandfather, Luigi Olivieri, started the family bakery in 1882. "It all began 140 years ago when my ancestors opened their bakery and we made only bread."
Each generation built the business with its own recipes and techniques. "We eventually added lievitati or...leavened cakes [for occasions] to our repertoire, spanning panettone, pandoro, and of course, Easter colomba. As time went on, locals eventually began to request these special cakes – the rest is history."
Unlike the panettone, a traditional, fruit-studded bread that's eaten at Christmas, Olivieri 1882's colomba, which is typically eaten at Easter and symbolises new beginnings, breaks from tradition. This dove-shaped bread comes in flavours including gianduja, apricot with salted caramel and cardamom with orange.
Fugassa Veneta
A firm favourite at Olivieri's Easter table is thought to date back centuries. La fugassa Veneta (Venetian focaccia), as it's often called, is a traditional Easter sweet of Veneto that symbolises spring and renewal.
"It's a traditional cake of my home region; you wouldn't find it, for example, in Rome or in Florence," says Olivieri.
He explains that both colomba and fugassa Veneta are Easter treats, but the colomba is seen as more "gluttonous", filled with eggs, butter and lots of sugar, and the fugassa Veneta is seen as more humble, although it's not less special.
Fugassa Veneta is a special Venetian focaccia. Source: Olivieri 1882
To celebrate Easter Sunday, families would bake a cake using the same dough as bread and add sugar, butter and eggs (at the time, expensive ingredients). "It's not as complicated or refined as the colomba (and it's round, not dove shaped) but it has its own charm and can be decorated with pearl sugar or left plain."
She would let me mix and knead the dough and then add the Marsala. It was magical.
Olivieri has strong memories of his nonna's fugassa Veneta.
"My nonna used to put a glug of Marsala liquor into her fugassa Veneta; the smell to this day reminds me of her and Easter Sundays. I remember making my first fugassa Veneta when I was around 7 years old with my nonna. She would let me mix and knead the dough and then add the Marsala. It was magical."
With the bakery's award-winning historical recipe (once named the best in all of Italy by , a reputable food guide akin to the Michelin Guide) inspiring his nonna's childhood fugassa Veneta, this is a recipe worth trying if you can't visit Olivieri 1882 yourself.
Olivieri 1882's fugassa Veneta
Makes 1 cake
Ingredients
First dough
- 50 g mixture of manitoba flour and 00 flour
- 20 g white granulated sugar
- 80 ml whole milk
- 3 g fresh yeast
Second dough
- 250 g mixture of manitoba flour and 00 flour
- 40 g white granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 60 g butter
Third dough
- 200 g mixture of manitoba flour and 00 flour
- 40 g white granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 40 g butter
- 10 g salt
- 1 vanilla bean
- Grated zest 1 orange
- Grated zest 1 lemon
- 10 ml rum
Decoration
- 1 egg white
- 20 g icing sugar
- Pearl sugar as needed
Method
- Mix 250 g 00 flour and 250 g manitoba flour in a bowl.
- Remove 50 g from the mix and put it in a bowl with the sugar. Mix well.
- Combine the fresh yeast with the milk. Add the yeast and milk with the flour and sugar mixture.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside for 2 hours. This is known as the sponge.
- Next, put the sponge in a stand mixer and add the second dough's flour, egg and sugar. Mix with the dough hook.
- Cut the softened butter into pieces and add each piece one by one, until they are well mixed.
- Shape the second dough into a ball and place it into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise until it's double in size (around 2 hours).
- Put the second dough back into the stand mixer. Add the third dough's flour, sugar and egg, and mix with the dough hook. When the third dough is smooth and all ingredients are well mixed, add the salt and keep mixing until it's well incorporated.
- Add the rum, scraped vanilla bean seeds, orange and lemon zest, then cut the softened butter into chunks and add it piece by piece, until well incorporated.
- Place the third dough into a paper cake mould and cover it with a slightly damp cloth. Let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.
- Remove from the refrigerator and let the third dough rise in a warm place until it has surpassed the edge of the paper mould. Then, cut an X on the top of the dough with a knife.
- Whisk the egg whites with the sugar and spread them on top of the dough. Add the pearl sugar.
- Bake in the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes. Then cover with tin foil and bake for another 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
