Happy 100th Birthday, Baci Perugina!
This year, Baci Perugina celebrated its 100th birthday with a night to remember. Husky Food Importers, in collaboration with the Italian Contemporary Film Festival, hosted a stunning event at the Fermenting Cellar in Toronto’s Distillery District. Baci was celebrated in the best way, with a fabulous party celebrating all things Italian, followed by a magical outdoor film screening. The ambiance was created by live musicians, a 360o-photo booth and even a Baci Perugina Fiat. This evening was an Italian food-lover’s dream with classics, such as Italian cheeses, Carbone pasta, delicious desserts, every flavour of Baci and a full-service bar where you could get everything from an espresso martini to an Aperol spritz.
The Italian Contemporary Film Festival (ICFF) hosted an outdoor screening, in their open-air cinema, of Part 1 of the award-winning TV series, Luisa Spagnoli. This series is about the founder of Baci Perugina, Luisa Spagnoli, and tells the amazing true story of how this Italian businesswoman, from humble beginnings, broke the boundaries for women of her time. The brand has become a household name thanks to her hard work and creative mind.
In 1922, Luisa Spagnoli created her original candy, a dark chocolate featuring chopped hazelnuts and a whole hazelnut in the centre. She called this candy the cazzotto, meaning punch, due to its dome-like shape, which resembles a hand’s knuckle. Since the word punch didn’t sound like the best name for a chocolate, she renamed it Baci, meaning kiss, and the chocolate we know and love today was born. Key features, such as the silver wrapping and love note, were added by Federico Seneca, the art director, and Giovanni Buitoni, one of the four founders. The secret love messages found inside of the chocolate wrapping were inspired by the love notes that Buitoni and Spagnoli would exchange that were hidden in chocolates. The original notes were written by Seneca and Buitoni, who had a quirkier idea of what a love note should be; these notes even became collectable items. From there, the notes evolved, from the iconic “And, what is a kiss?” to over 390 possible phrases, including limited edition versions found in the Dolce & Gabbana limited edition Baci Perugina Dolce Vita. Today, these notes are translated into many different languages so that people all over the world can feel the love.
