Remember 28ºC by Jose Romero, the book to master the panettone

Panettone is one of the most fashionable sweets in the world, it is a growing attraction that has crossed the Italian borders years ago. In Spain we have been enjoying its artisan version for decades through some pioneers in the field such as Jose Romero.

The teacher at the Escuela de Pastelería del Gremio de Barcelona (EPGB) is not only the driving force behind the popular competition for the Best Artisan Panettone in Spain, but he has also developed a complete teaching method that allows you to master all the key aspects of this preparation. A method concentrated in his new book Remember 28ºC, which aims to teach what happens at each stage of the process, what role each ingredient plays and how to modulate or change the result depending on the dosage, temperature control or resting times.

There are many elements that allow us to personalise our panettone. The book Remember 28ºC focuses on all of them. For example, it devotes a chapter to its basic ingredient, sourdough. With numerous diagrams and tables, it details the stages of initiation, maintenance, refreshing and activation, as well as the guidelines for integrating it into a production cycle.

Remember 28ºC also brings together numerous recipes, both for classic panettones and Easter colombas, pandoros and the original bussolà. In addition, it is completed with creations by three guest chefs - Bruno Andreoletti, Jesús Fuentes and Joe Moretones -, a chapter dedicated to the glazes with which to finish each dough and another to candied fruit. There is also space for the auxiliary preparations more akin to these doughs.

Who is Jose Romero?

After a fruitful period as a chef, Jose Romero's adventure in patisserie and the world of pastry began in 2007, when he joined the new teaching team at the Barcelona School of Patisserie. His own vision, his eagerness to learn and his non-conformist spirit soon made themselves felt and contributed to the change that took place at the school, which in just a few years became one of the leading centres for pastry training in southern Europe and beyond.

Little by little, Jose Romero let himself be impregnated by the pastry environment, but without losing his open-mindedness and his culinary curiosity. It is in this environment that he explores new paths in what we all know as savoury patisserie, but which in reality is a play of disciplines with his own stamp and influences. The book "Ideas y recetas entre la cocina y la pastelería" (Ideas and recipes between cooking and patisserie), which he published with Books for Chefs in 2015, was born from these exercises.

A little earlier, in 2012, he had his first contact with panettone. His growing interest in sourdoughs and the magic of sourdough led him to delve into this product. "I took it as a game at first," he recalls, "then as a challenge and then as a philosophy.

Philosophy, passion and his desire to learn push him to contact great professionals and devour reference books with which he assimilates the keys to the product and develops his own path. It is precisely this fervour for making panettone that led him to promote the Competition for the Best Panettone in Spain, a pioneering initiative launched in 2016 under the auspices of the EPGB, which quickly became the best incentive to promote the culture of this product among artisans throughout the country.

His eagerness to improve and his open-minded attitude have fuelled a personal evolution that has led him to master this product like few others. Over the years, more and more professionals have turned to his advice and his specialised courses to enjoy a method that takes into account the complexity of the product and the keys to achieving a regular result of optimum quality.

With this book, his aim is to put in writing the fruit of more than 10 years of experience. "It is not an absolute truth", he warns us, "I share with whoever is interested what I have seen during all this time that works". With the pedagogical tone that characterises him, this book helps to take away the fear of making panettone and to improve the method of preparation and the result obtained.