Ambassador of panettone

gary rulli

For him, Panettone is eaten all year round and has convinced even the Americans. Chef Gary Rulli is considered one of the greatest master pastry chefs in the United States, based in San Francisco. The famous Italian-American chef and TV personality Giada de Laurentis has proposed his Milanese Panettone in her: The Food Show Network as "the best thing I have ever eaten." He was the only Italian-American to be included in the AMPI, the Accademia Maestri Pasticceria Italiana, in Brescia. Among his clients, he can include President Jimmy Carter, Sophia Loren, Martha Stewart, George Lucas, Alberto Tomba, and Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead. 

You are famous in America for having spread Panettone as a dessert to be consumed throughout the year, not only for the Christmas holidays.

I have been called "the ambassador of authentic Italian pastry in America" by La Pasticceria Internazionale. When I first started as a pastry chef in the 70's, the American public only knew of industrial Panettone. Italian American bakeries were only making Panettone with baker's yeast, not natural yeast. That technique was totally unknown. That led me on a quest to go to Italy to learn the craft of Panettone from Italian masters. When I first arrived in Italy in 1982, it was both a dying art and a tightly kept secret. Most older pastry chefs who would mentor me kept these recipes well-guarded. The impacts of growing up in the Great Depression and both World Wars led many of these chefs to understand how valuable the knowledge of natural yeast production was to both job and financial security. 

How were you able to have success in this field? 

Luckily for me, an introduction changed everything. My mentor helping me unlock these closely guarded secrets was the renowned pastry chef from Bergamo, Achille Brena. Achille had the gift of both incredible artistic craftsmanship in sugar decoration and knowledge of the powers of natural yeast to make authentic Panettone; "un pasticcere a 360 gradi." I brought the natural yeast starter back to America as a gift from Brena. This 100-year-old starter allows me to produce Panettone of all kinds: from Milanese to Genovese and the News Year's Panettone known as the Veneziana. In this way, it's allowed me to preserve the regional authenticity of these recipes while introducing them to the American public. As another one of my older Italian mentors once told me jokingly: "The yeast starter is like having a second wife. You always have to show affection and never forget her if you want to keep her happy".

You have many clients also in Silicon Valley. 

Over the past decade, the Bay Area and San Francisco, in particular, have been transformed by Silicon Valley's growth. With technology, the world has become much smaller. Social media platforms make it much easier to market to this new customer base. I have found that Italian ex-pats living in Silicon Valley have discovered my restaurant in San Francisco, RistoBar, and our flagship Pasticceria, Emporio Rulli, in Larkspur. On the other hand, I am also very passionate about technology. 

In which way? 

I have a deep appreciation for the new technologies in the region that incubates new ideas, chief among them NFTs that allow, for example, photographers and artists to sell everything directly online. I think that blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and digital technologies from your phone benefit small businesses that were previously at a significant disadvantage working to create their brand. And, after all, chefs are also artists! We are artists of gastronomy, like Stanley Tucci's show: Searching for Italy is demonstrating, which is conquering all the United States and making everyone even more passionate about Italian cuisine. I want to do the same thing with authentic Italian pastry beginning with an interactive book. Can you imagine a book with QR codes that allow the reader to watch a video demonstration of the recipe? I think this is the future.

What do you recommend to young aspiring pastry chefs and chefs? 

To develop your style, you have to know pastry's basics and classic fundamentals. It's essential today to be innovative while still respecting the traditions of where you came from and always acknowledging the mentors who made it all possible. You also need to read as many books as possible. Now more than ever, in a competitive and challenging business environment, utilizing all that today's innovative marketing has to offer, including social media, team management, and continuing pastry courses, are all necessary to thrive. Pastry requires a lot of sacrifices, but if you love what you do, it's a very rewarding trade and allows you to meet people from all over the world that very few fields can offer. You have to believe in yourself and every day be better than the day before.

You are of Italian origin, do you know how your family came to America?

My grandparents were Italian immigrants from Abruzzi who met and married in Philadelphia. They eventually moved to San Francisco. They settled in the Napa Valley in Calistoga and opened a summertime resort where many Europeans would later vacation. I was spending the summers in Calistoga as a child watching my grandparents and my Italian friends cook, playing card games like Pedro, and spending time around the proverbial Italian table. It was an immersion into a culture that I was fascinated by. 

How did you develop so your passion for cooking? 

Although I love the art of pastry, I generally like to cook. It's a passion I've developed with my grandparents since I was a kid. My great grandmother, Lucia, used to make “pasta alla chitarra”, and my grandparents used to make Zuppa Inglese, ravioli, bread soup, zucchini stuffed with meat, spaghetti al pesto, and inherited their passion for desserts. My grandfather prepared Tarallucci filled with mostocotto from Napa grapes. My first job was making Bomboloni in a small, family-owned supermarket during high school. When my grandfather asked how I liked working at a pastry shop, and I said I enjoyed it, he told me I needed to go to North Beach, the Italian section of San Francisco, to learn the trade. I traveled with my grandparents for the first time to Italy. It was eye-opening: seeing the incredible pastry shops and cafes sparked a dream to transport the Italian pastry culture back to San Francisco. I was an apprentice in Pinerolo with the Galup family. In a lucky twist of events, I then went to Milan, where I was able to apprentice under Silvano Lulini at Pasticceria Piave. Subsequent trips led me to visit Graziano Giovanini, Nino Pellegrinetti, Iginio Massari, Luca Mannori, Luigi Biasseto, and Santi Palazzolo. When I was in Italy, I always felt very comfortable even though I was not born there. It gave me a new sense of pride in my Italian heritage and the newfound confidence to make this dream a reality back home. 

How did you decide to start your own business and expand your brand? 

In Italy, I always fell in love with their packaging and the beautiful presentation of their products. From the hand-wrapping of the cakes to the branded logos of chocolate boxes, these nuances of branding were all integral parts of Emporio Rulli's future success, which set us apart from other pastry shops in the United States. In 1988, my wife Jeannie and I decided to open in the small town of Larkspur, 20 minutes north of San Francisco. An old railroad town, we both felt it would be the perfect spot to open a destination pastry shop where we could raise our children. In 2010, we opened the RistoBar in San Francisco's Marina District; an award-winning restaurant specialized in hand-made pasta and authentic Italian cuisine. I continued to grow my brand through mail order business shipping all over the country. I will be expanding the brand further through a new chocolate pastry boutique opening in the San Francisco International Airport in February 2022.