Interview with the foodblogger & marketing expert Francesco Saccomandi
You are a poliedric character, multitasking and with a lot of different passions.Starting when you were a kid, you have discovered your passion for desserts.Then your life saw your passion for social media activity with your blog Pan di Spagna first and Fornostar later. Later you have been on Italian television emission Detto Fatto, you practice sport, you also are a content creator. Last but not least, you have been a marketing manager in very important companies and non professional pastry chef and tutor for your followers. Can you tell us your professional cv? Your personal irony has always been very strong as well…
First of all, I thank you very much for the opportunity to tell my story! I must say that when I do the list of my passion and interests, I wonder how many lives am I living at the same time… But I’m always moved by the fire of passion for life.
At the very beginning of my life I was asking what am I going to do in my life?
The answer was always: a school teacher, because I worshiped Carla, my fantastic school teacher. Well, life took me doing other, first of all I attended to Ragioneria High school (an experimental course with 3 foreign language to study) then I graduated at Economic University faculty (at the same time I was personal trainer in 4 different gyms Bologna and Ravenna).
Then I make a dream come true: studying in US. I took a master on International Marketing in San Francisco (CA) and then I worked at a GAP shop as my first job.
When I came back to Italy, I went on working on fashion, then I began one of the most important and formative work experience a person can do in Technogym Company (I will always be grateful to them for what I have learnt). Today I’m Marketing Manager in a multinational cosmetic company in hotellerie sector. I must say I’m out of breath just to answer to this question! 🙂
You come from Romagna region, and now you have been adopted by Le Marche Region, by its Conero mountain, by their breathtaking hills panorama, what do you like about this territory? You have traveled a lot, visiting the most important countries and full of suggestion location, how can you describe le Marche territory to us?
I’m a Romagnolo (born in Romagna) inside and I love my region, but I ‘ve immediately appreciated the hospitality of Le Marche region, food and their colorful slang! I will never get used to the frame of hills along my daily way to work. In Romagna I was used to flat land, here on the contrary, the territory is one amazing up and down. Not to mention the fields of sunflowers in summer!
I don’t know how many times I stopped myself to get some pictures of them! According to me Le Marche region are a concentrate of the best Italy can offer:ìsea, hills and mountain, something for each of us!
Food, and especially desserts, are, perhaps your biggest passion. Icecream, cakes and first of all your cup cake Tirami sù. Can you tell us how you have re created what it is the worldwide reknown dessert?
I think that the cupcake tirami sù for me, it was like the numero zero for Uncle Scrooge: the first recipe I made represents the insurmountable obstacle I overcame.
First of all I must say that Tiramisù is like lasagne, I mean, each of us has his own way to make it, and all the different ways are ok.
I just pay a tribute to it, I created a cooked sponge cake soaked with Marsala liquor diluted with water and sugar.
Then I added a generous quantity of mascarpone cheese frosting and whipped cream, last but not least, I added a sprinkled with cocoa at the end.
The digital dairy you made during pandemic moments, it is really very interesting. Your live on social with friends and colleagues have been a way to stay tuned with the world, a way to be a teacher, to transfer knowledge you like so much or a Romagnolo optimistic reaction to the Block down?
I lived through the year of the pandemic as a way to really discover which are the essential things for my life.
It was a coming back to introspection , but, first of all , it has been a discovery and a reinforcement of friendships, of course the virtual ones.
I remember that my biggest wish was to share all what I was doing, expecially because many of my Fornostar friends (I don’t like the “ ollowers” word, it sounds too diminutive)were texting to me with a lot of anxiety, fears and uncertainties. “Put in oven” took us concentrated. All of us we felt that, nevertheless the world has stopped, adding the yeast to the water and flour makes the Doug grow, anyway.
We know you have studied in US, somebody call you The American boy, what did you find and what do you like in this country? (in addition to its beautiful cake of course…
First time I went to US I was 18, in Los Angeles. I remember, as it was now, the deja vu sensation: I was sure I’ve already been there in a former life, because I feel so familiar with this country, its culture and its people. I was lucky enough to go back for 3 years, during my master in San Diego. What I first admire in US is the entrepreneurial attitude, the desire to do.
Just to give you an example, it’s typical that kids open a little stand to sell lemonade at the end of the street they live.
We know you like truffle very much.Acqualagna is the homeland of truffle all over the year :starting from fine white and black truffles, till the summer one. It is a precious ingredient from the the hearth you can use in cooking in many ways. What does truffle, the diamond of the ground, suggest to you?
I love truffle, its aroma and taste are unmistakable and incomparable, my preferite way of using it is adding fresh grated truffle on a crouton of toasted bread over which we have laid one fried egg with a stringy yok.