A book dedicated to the popular chocolate-hazelnut spread Nutella was launched in Melbourne on Monday 18 January 2016.

 

Titled “Nutella World” the book reveals how the spread moved being sold in one Italian pastry shop seventy years ago to a global product.

 

The author Gigi Padovani was born in Alba Italy, the town in which Nutella originated from. Padovani worked as a reporter for La Stampa for many years. As well as collaborating with other newspapers and magazines he has focused on writing articles on domestic politics and society. An essayist and food writer, he has published approximately twenty books, some of which have been translated into other languages including Nutella World. His previous publications include: Nutella: Un mito Italiano (2004), Slow Food Revolution: A New Culture for Dining and Living (2006), and Street food all’Italiana with his wife Clara Vada Padovani (2013). The book is published by Hardie Grant Books.

 

Nutella is owned by the Ferro company which also owns Ferro Rocher, Kinder and Tic Tac brands. The company had its start in Alba in Piedmont, Italy, in 1946. Today the company has a presence in 53 countries and operates 21 production plants globally. Its products are sold in more than 160 countries.

 

The book explores key facts and secrets behind Nutella’s success, for example:

 

• There are 1,700 expert testers who work for the company

 

• Nutella was an accident. In 1945 it was a small block of semi-hard chocolate-hazelnut mixture (Giandujot) that could be sliced and eaten with bread. However, the summer of 1949 was a particularly hot one, and the Giandujot was melting. It was then that Ferrero realised that it could be reduced to a cream.

 

• Manteca is the heart of the Nutella recipe, and refers to “a mixture of soft or fat substances with a creamy consistency.” The Manteca is achieved right after the hazelnuts are toasted and then ground to the perfect consistency before anything else (even chocolate) is added to the mixture.

 

• About 350000 tons of Nutella are produced every year, with over 11000 tons of this production coming from Lithgow in New South Wales.

 

• Globally there are 21 factories, with over 30000 workers including the Lithgow NSW factory.

 

• The global growth of Ferrero and Nutella has led to the company developing new hazelnuts industries in the Southern Hemisphere, most recently in Australia. By March 2018 the farm in the Riverina Area of New South Wales is anticipated to produce approximately 5000 tonnes of hazelnuts in-shell.

 

Nutella World can be purchased now through book stores for AUD$45.00.