Who we are

I am Luca and I am 25 years old today. Since I was little I wanted to be a pastry chef and my dream was to have my own pastry shop. As I grew up, I discovered that this was really my passion. I loved making cakes and pies, and over the years I have made and eaten many of them. I gained some experience working in different places and, as soon as I turned 18, that dream started to take shape, becoming a real project. In spite of many difficulties and problems, thanks to my determination and stubbornness, and to my passion that has not abandoned me, to my family and to many many sacrifices, at the age of 23, I have realised that dream. It's called EMALU.

I come from an artisan family. My father and grandparents were carpenters, the old-fashioned kind. Real craftsmen. They worked wood since it was a log. And so do I. I call myself a REAL craftsman, because I prepare everything starting from the processing of the raw material, of the highest quality and almost always from our land... nowadays few do it... no one perhaps.... On the market there is so much crap... mixed powders, semi-processed mixes and lots of ready-made industrial stuff. I hate all that. It makes no sense to be a pastry chef using all these shortcuts. I am the baker and I make everything from scratch. I create what I want to taste and have tasted. In my workshop, the raw materials are flour, sugar, eggs, milk, butter and yeast and the people who are with me. I have also had my own mother yeast for some time. It is the guarantee for all our leavened products. All our production is authentic. They can try to copy us or we can try to take inspiration from someone better than us, but nobody has a product like ours.

This also applies to the ice-cream parlour, which I call natural because here too I do not use any powder or base. Just fresh milk and cream, sugars, fresh seasonal fruit or dried fruit and top-quality chocolate and carob seed flour (a natural thickener used by the old ice cream makers). I wanted to include the cafeteria in my shop because I am passionate about coffee... I have studied it a lot and the world behind 'coffee' is really immense and fascinating... few people know it and I would like to make it known. I bought an espresso machine that is the Ferrari of espresso machines, it is entirely handmade, entirely made of surgical steel. We use really cutting-edge technology and it guarantees excellent coffee processing. Our blend is composed almost entirely of Arabica origins and the roasting is also artisanal, just a few kilometres away. It has a slow food presidium and produces only the highest quality coffee. We also serve aperitifs. Savoury pastries and drinks. We take care of take-away buffets and complete catering services.

EMALU pastry shop

San Vito dei N.nni (BR)

Head pastry chef:

LUCA MARANGI