The host of Che Tempo Che Fa, as everyone knows, never gives interviews, but he made an exception for us, setting just one condition: “Let’s talk only about chocolate!
Let’s talk chocolate with journalist and prime-time TV presenter Fabio Fazio. We’ll start by discussing a historical chocolate factory in the Italian Riviera – Lavoratti, founded in 1938 – that Fazio and a business partner salvaged from bankruptcy in 2022. Lavoratti’s activity started as a push-cart business. They would sell sweets and beverages to beachgoers. Soon after, they opened a small store in Varazze…
How did it all begin – for you
Varazze is my grandparents’ hometown, and they used to buy Lavoratti’s sweets for Easter and Christmas. I remember distinctly the smell of chocolate: we tried so hard to make it last as long as possible! Due to the shutdown in 2020, the business wasn’t doing well, and that’s when I realized that I needed to do something. Making chocolate is the funniest, most beautiful thing one can do. I love it, it’s always been my favourite candy and I’ll never give it up! Chocolate can and will bring you back to childhood, it’s that powerful. To me, it all feels like one single memory: chocolate, the town of Varazze, holidays at my grandparents’, the Easter egg we couldn’t touch until Sunday, and the Good Friday Procession looking like a Goya painting under our window, with candles illuminating the image of Christ.
Buying Lavarotti
We started with the renovation of the actual shop by buying new machines, and we thought about the idea we wanted to associate to our brand. Everybody’s saying that food must tell you something, so we decided that our chocolate bars would look like books, and their sides will be in the golden ratio. Each case contains eight bars, collected like volumes in a bookcase, bookmark included. On each piece, our symbol: the Nautilus.
The Golden Ratio
Our Nautilus logo is a depiction of the golden ratio. Our chocolate bars and pralines are shaped in the same ratio, and more generally, we strive for perfection in taste, too. We scout local producers and follow the advice of the best consultants around, like Corrado Assenza. Our latest addition is a cultivar of oranges named thief cheater: ugly on the outside (nobody would steal them!) but oh so sweet on the inside.
Your work with Corrado Assenza
Chef Massimo Bottura suggested we contacted him. Assenza is not only a master confectioner, but a poet, an intellectual who uses ingredients like an author uses words. He is the king of alchemy, and knows how to get the best from each piece of produce. He helped tremendously when we first started, especially in keeping our production – no matter the volumes – strictly a craft. It’s all about manual work, as can testify our maître chocolatier Marco Ferrari. Our cocoa, of the San José variety, is the perfect choice to convey each minute Mediterranean taste and scent, turning them into an accomplished tasting experience.
The sweetness of life
This will sound unoriginal, but the one answer I can give is this: my children. Nothing is more important, or more beautiful. I became a parent past the age of forty and at such an age, you cannot but be aware that children are the physical embodiment of the future. What is future? A non-existent, intangible, invisible concept. Children, you can see and touch them. They give meaning to your existence, and the more time passes by, the less there is left, and the more I want to spend it with them. Any moment we spend together makes me happy.
Your work in the media
There’s pride in what has been done and what is yet to come. Commitment and curiosity are essential, while the pleasure, the emotion of incredible encounters is a real privilege. Thanks to my show, Che tempo che fa, I have been able to meet people of such different experiences and life paths. Meeting each was like reading a book, and each left something. In this sense, the show is one and the same as me, and it grows and evolves like I do. Again, a true privilege.
