History
History
1930
The stone oven and grandfather Rocco
It was the year when it all began: on August 13 my grandfather started his business with the inauguration of a stone oven in Piazza Assunta, in Delianuova. He was essentially a self-taught man, but the tenacity and passion led him to still produce quality and appreciated products: biscuits, savoiardi, paste secche and even ice cream and granita using the icebox, a luxury for the times. He considered himself a craftsman, because he worked essentially for the local lords or for particular events. When he married my grandmother in 1939, the Pastry Shop began to take on a different connotation, thanks to the managerial management of that little big woman. And as things started to go well, they chose a different, more central location in Via Roma.
1965
The pastry paper and Canada
My father was not destined for this job. In fact, at 24, he joined my uncle in Canada and started helping him in his bakery for 5 long years. When he received the proposal to become a member of the business, almost determined to accept it, he wanted to return to Italy to talk about it first with my grandparents. By now they were old and tired to run a business alone. The day of the decision occurred in conjunction with the visit, in the pastry shop, by a representative of pastry paper. It was then that my grandfather asked my father if he should order a new supply of paper, with the words “Rocco Scutellà and son”, or suspend orders and close the business. He decided not to leave, and took the situation in hand, reviewing, for example, the prices of nougat, too low compared to the quality of the product. In 1992 he wanted to renovate the premises and, at the same time, he started directing me, once my maturity was completed, towards an apprenticeship in a craft workshop. To give us a contact, ironically, he was a representative of the false ceiling that my father asked for advice. For 3 years, therefore, I worked in the small workshop of Luigi Pellegrino in Messina, innovator of the pastry shop for those times, which made me fall in love even more with this profession.
1965
The pastry paper and Canada
My father was not destined for this job. In fact, at 24, he joined my uncle in Canada and started helping him in his bakery for 5 long years. When he received the proposal to become a member of the business, almost determined to accept it, he wanted to return to Italy to talk about it first with my grandparents. By now they were old and tired to run a business alone. The day of the decision occurred in conjunction with the visit, in the pastry shop, by a representative of pastry paper. It was then that my grandfather asked my father if he should order a new supply of paper, with the words “Rocco Scutellà and son”, or suspend orders and close the business. He decided not to leave, and took the situation in hand, reviewing, for example, the prices of nougat, too low compared to the quality of the product. In 1992 he wanted to renovate the premises and, at the same time, he started directing me, once my maturity was completed, towards an apprenticeship in a craft workshop. To give us a contact, ironically, he was a representative of the false ceiling that my father asked for advice. For 3 years, therefore, I worked in the small workshop of Luigi Pellegrino in Messina, innovator of the pastry shop for those times, which made me fall in love even more with this profession.
2000
The formation, mother yeast and AMPI
After the Sicilian experience I began to follow pastry courses throughout Italy every year. I knew well, and I am still aware today, that there is always something to learn, which is why I try to improve myself day after day.
The discovery of mother yeast, for example, represented a turning point not only for me, but for the whole offer of products within my Pastry Shop. Before starting to use it in 2007, I took courses with experts such as Maestro Achille Zoia or Maestro Rolando Morandin. From there I started producing small and large leavened products, such as panettone, a gamble for us that we are known above all for the pure almond nougat.
In 2012 we inaugurated the new historical restaurant, still in Via Roma, a few meters away from the previous one. It is the place that contains all the sacrifices and the work of three generations, and that manages, better than any word, to tell about us. In that same year, the whole process began to become part of the Italian Master Pastry Chef Academy. A rigid and very long journey, which ended in March 2015, just in time to share this great joy with my greatest Master, my father.