Gary Rulli’s 50-year journey to perfecting the Italian classic
Multiple risings and an upside down cooling process contribute to the signature loft of Rulli’s panettone.
Now a member of the Accademia Maestri Pasticceria Italiani (Italian Pastry Masters Academy), panettone guru Gary Rulli of Emporio Rulli’s in Larkspur got his start making doughnuts at an Ignacio mini-mart.
“The baker there asked me: ‘Do you want to do this?’”
Rulli did.
After internships at Lafayette Pastry in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow and North Beach’s Victoria Pastry, the Marin Catholic graduate ventured to Italy, where his love of Italian pastry kicked into a higher gear. “I wanted to learn the trade and do something authentic,” he says.
In the early 1980s, Rulli apprenticed at Milan’s Pasticceria Piave by night while attending pastry school during the day, learning the master doughs of his Italian heritage. A piece of Milanese natural yeast starter (or mother, a.k.a. Lievito Madre or Lievito Naturale)—handed down from mentor to apprentice for over 100 years—made its way back to Marin. Rulli nurtured this gift of Italian flavor, continually wrapping it and refreshing it to keep it from souring.
By November 1988, when he opened his bakery in Larkspur, Rulli had created an emporio of Italian pastry. He is, perhaps, best known for his panettone.
“In Italy, panettone is between a cake and a bread,” he says, “but in Italy they would call it an Italian brioche. I don’t think of it as a cake.”
Little more than flour, water and naturally occurring yeast, panettone is a heritage brioche, known for its impressively tall, pointy shape. Its Italian flavor begins with Rulli’s imported and eternally refreshed Lievito Madre and soft Italian 00 wheat flour, which Rulli ages a bit to buff its edgy freshness. To start a panettone, water, sugar, French butter and egg yolks yield a “prime pasta” or “first dough,” which rests overnight, tripling in volume. More flour, butter, sugar as well as salt and panettone essence (like an orange floral water) are mixed and rested before California raisins and Calabrian citron are added.
After cutting, shaping and further proofing in specialized Italian baking molds, the dough again doubles in volume before it is baked. A medieval-looking contraption can be thanked for panettone’s fluffy texture. Envision two long poles with nails jutting out: These pierce the bottom of the brioche, which are then inverted to hang overnight.
“The pastry is so rich in butter, it will lose the height created in the oven and the pastry will collapse,” Rulli says.
After 40-plus years making panettone, Rulli continues to craft Panettone Genovese (less egg yolks and butter yield a denser crumb) and Panettone Milanese (more egg yolks and butter yield a lighter, richer crumb) all year. Pandoro, a Veronese creation with even more butter and a distinctive star-shaped design, is baked only during the peak holiday season.
And the doughnut of Rulli’s youth? Look for bomboloni next time you check Rulli’s extensive pastry case.
