• Massimo Carnio, famous Italian confectioner and chocolatier, was formed in a family of pastry-confectioners with deep traditions in this field.
Massimo Carnio had the chance to learn from some of the world's greatest confectioners and chocolatiers, and his passion, talent and desire for perfection made him a master who combines elegance with simplicity in his creations. His passion, talent and desire for perfection have made Massimo Carnio a master, who knows how to combine elegance with simplicity in his creations.
Laureate of international competitions, such as World Ice Cream Championship, Championship "Cacao Barry World Chocolate Master", the World Chocolate Championship, the Championship "Gelato d'Oro" from Sigep Italia, Massimo Carnio trains daily in the confectionery-cafe "Villa dei Cedri" from Valdobbiadene (Treviso), a business opened in 2000, together with his wife, Silvia, a local that very quickly became a point of reference for the community in the area.
His experience recommended him as a consultant for several companies and pastry laboratories. He worked with the PreGel company, was appointed official ambassador for Cacao Barry, collaborates with the Martellato company as a demonstrator and consultant, as well as with the company with Menz and Gasser, a leader in the production of jams.
Massimo Carnio sees his professional path as a continuous journey of discovery and innovation. Every success is an opportunity to embark on new projects and take on greater challenges. His passion for confectionery and chocolate continues to drive him to excellence and innovation, sharing the beauty of confectionery art with the world.
1. You are in Romania for the first time. How do you like our country and how did you feel these days in the Nova Pan family?
Yes, it's the first time I come to Romania. I met very kind and benevolent people. I was impressed by their curiosity, their desire to know and learn new things. That marked me in a special way.
And Nova Pan is a modern company, developed in all sectors, from bakery to chocolate and pastry, and very future-oriented, so it will definitely go far.
I felt very good here. Baking Show is a great demo space that works really well, an example for many other companies.
2. We know you grew up in a family of confectioners, which means a deep connection to the world of white art. Have you ever considered doing something else? If you hadn't become a pastry chef, what would your ideal career have been?
In fact, I am a descendant of the baker. My grandfather started as a baker, then later, in 1923, he became a pastry chef and opened his first confectionery. Then my father inherited the business and consequently it was my turn to take over this beautiful job. And I do it with great, great passion.
I grew up in white art, and then follow my path through my thoughts, my vision and the business that I started in 2000, together with my wife. Now, we have developed and expanded, our goals being focused on the future, modernity, continuous growth.
And to answer the question: at the beginning, I had the problem that all chefs, confectioners, those who work in restaurants have, namely that they would like to have Saturdays and Sundays off, but this job doesn't allow for that because it's a job of sacrifice. So, while others are partying, you have to work, be available to please the customers, and so your job becomes a bit of a sacrifice.
When I was young I dreamed of becoming an actor or, even better, a film producer. Then I had another passion: that of being a draftsman, of drawing. And I want to tell you that I am very good at drawing. This helps me in baking and processing chocolate for decorations. Considering that basically when you make a cake or even a simple chocolate, you have to first draw what you imagine and then create the different layers, the different fillings, what you want to put inside... More specifically, what you want to convey to the client through your design.
3. What is the first kitchen or pastry memory you have?
My first memory of the pastry shop is that I used to wash pots and pans! Because when I was a kid, my father didn't have a modern dishwasher, so we had to wash everything by hand, and that job fell to me. Later I started making doughs for simpler, basic cakes. This is the first memory I have of this area.
4. How would you describe your personal style in the confectionery field? Are there any particular influences or experiences that have shaped it?
My style has been shaped by the various competitions I've entered in my career. I started participating in competitions when I was 16 years old. Not with great results, but this lack of results gave me the opportunity to grow, to outline new projects, to aspire to what every confectioner would like to be: to become World Champion.
5. What do you think are the main characteristics that distinguish a great pastry chef?
In my opinion, a great confectioner must know how to work with all quality raw materials. I don't like it when someone can't work if they don't have certain specific raw materials. To me, a professional has to take the raw material and turn it into what the client wants. Would you like a panettone? Let's make a panettone. Would you like a mignon? Let's make mignon. Do you want a chocolate? A praline? Let's make pralines.
A great confectioner must first know the balance in the dosage of the ingredients and the techniques to reach the expected result. When he does not know them in depth, he can only work with the raw materials he works with all the time.
6. Are there special moments when you find inspiration for your creations? How do you come up with the idea for a new dessert?
A great master taught me that the night is always a good counselor. So in the evening, before I fall asleep, I think about what I want to achieve. In silence, without a phone, without someone calling you because they need you. At night you can be free from all thoughts. For me, the field of confectionery is a form of meditation at night and a transformation during the day.
7. On the website of your confectionery and cafe, Villa dei Cedri, am found the expression: "Sweets that tell stories." What is the story your sweets tell?
My sweets have many stories... It is, first of all, the case of traditional desserts from which history itself teaches us and which must be respected, from my point of view. If history gave us a cake made like this, we have to respect it, or we can possibly reinterpret it in a more modern version, maybe with a different name, a fancy one, or even with other flavors. But traditional desserts must be respected.
On the other hand, there are the desserts that you create yourself. I come back to the previous question where you wanted to know how I define my own style. My style is simplicity, elegance and good taste. First of all, a dessert must taste good. And also beautiful to look at, because the eye is the first to be conquered by your product.
It has to be pleasing to the eye first and delicious to the taste second, right? So I repeat: through simplicity and elegance we manage to make a saleable product, because in the end we have to sell. And these days it is almost more important to know how to sell than to work.
8. Is there a dessert that you particularly like? Can you tell us its story?
The dessert I'm particularly fond of dates back to 2015 when I attended "Cacao Barry World Chocolate Master" and it's a fresh cake. That means a dessert that had to be made in 2 hours from start to finish. It's a combination of my own history, because I'm passionate about puff pastry, so I wanted to create a puff pastry product in the shape of a cylinder. It was something unique at the time.
Added to this was the story of the interior, with seven types of textures that conveyed my passion for chocolate and fresh fruit. In this case it was raspberry. We then made a special size for that dessert – a single serving of 85 grams. It was ranked as the first dessert in the world. It stayed in my heart because to get it it took more than a year of work and tastings.
9. What ingredients do you prefer to use and why? Do you have a secret ingredient? I saw that you like working with chocolate…
That's right. And to learn to work with chocolate I went to the best specialization schools. Chocolate is a raw material with multiple ways of use, as it can be sweet, less sweet, bitter or more acidic. Thus, we can choose which variant of it to use in our creations. And that's a great thing when you're talking about an ingredient.
With flour you can choose whether it has more protein, less protein, but in the end it's more or less always the same flour, while chocolate changes a lot. We have white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, ruby pink chocolate. We have a whole universe of chocolate.
10. What is the nicest compliment you have received for one of your desserts?
Again, we return to World Chocolate Master, when a famous French MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France) by name Angelo Musa he tasted my dessert and in French he said: "Je ferrai beaucoup des kilometers pour acheter ce desert" ("I would travel many kilometers to buy this dessert"). That's a compliment that stuck with me. Because you know, the French are very reluctant to give compliments to strangers, so this is a special compliment.
11. What are the main challenges you encounter in your daily work?
The main challenges, unfortunately, are not necessarily related to the field, but the unforeseen events: an equipment that breaks or a forgotten ingredient... All these unforeseen events disturb my peace and bother me a lot. Always when there is something extra to deal with, it is not pleasant.
I'm also a perfectionist when it comes to composition, what product exposure should be. And unfortunately, sometimes you have to compromise, especially when you don't work in your own lab and you have to entrust your work to other people, and those people may not do things the way you want them to. They have their own vision, their own way of doing things, and so it's normal that sometimes you have to adapt.
12. How do you balance your pastry career with your personal life? What do you do to relax or detach from work? Do you have a hidden hobby or passion that is not related to baking?
As you know, pastry chefs don't have much free time. But the free time we have, we try to use it well, so with something we like. I really like to play paddle, which is a sport of the moment. And then I really like to work the land, to garden, so I have a small raspberry plantation and a big, beautiful vegetable garden where, from spring to autumn, I grow what I like.
13. What advice would you give to a young pastry chef who wants to pursue this career?
I always advise young people to learn first. Maybe because, in the past, this was the field that young people who didn't want to study would go into. Whereas now, in my opinion, it's important to study, to know the raw materials, to know the reactions between the raw materials, so that you're prepared on a technical level, not just a practical level.
However, this should not distract us from the practical aspect either. Because we don't have to enter a confectionery laboratory and we just know everything at a theoretical level to watch others work. After learning the techniques and theory, only then can we put into practice what we have studied. Both go hand in hand. But both must be done from a young age, because, in my opinion, you have the ideas, the courage, the will when you are young and it is easier then. I know a lot of friends, people who went into this career at an older age, but it gets a little more difficult.
14. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back to the beginning of your career?
I confess that I am very happy with what I experienced and I do not regret anything. I would do it all over again, but I would "rewind the tape"just to be younger. But I would say, however, that the only regret I have is that I could have studied more, earlier, when I was younger...
I regret not learning a foreign language like English or another language, maybe French. Now it's late because you have to learn the verbs, you have to conjugate them, you have to go live in the country whose language you want to learn, so you can speak it correctly. You have to practice all the time. If you do this, you're constantly learning, you don't forget.
Interview conducted by Gabriela Dan, Editor-in-Chief of Arta Albă, on the occasion of the Workshop held by Pastry Chef Massimo Carnio at Baking Show.
Read on White Art and: The first workshop held in Romania by Massimo Carnio, pastry chef and master chocolatier
