2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
Dell ' Ancient Bonajuto confectionery shop we wrote, just a month ago, that she is the most famous interpreter of Modica chocolate.
After having risked disappearing at the end of the 1980s - only a couple of persistent confectioners still produced it - Modica chocolate lived a second youth thanks to the insights of Franco Ruta, son of Rosa Bonajuto and owner of the business which, by carefully mixing marketing and tradition, has set in motion a mechanism otherwise doomed to oblivion.
It is a real disappointment to learn about the sad awakening of the enchanting Sicilian city where Franco Ruta died during the night, struck down by a heart attack at the age of 72.
Chocolatiers for at least five generations, awarded since 1911 with a gold medal at the Rome exhibition, the Bonajutos, with Franco Ruta and his son Pierpaolo at the helm of the confectionery shop, still produce a glossy chocolate on sight, with a grainy texture and intense flavor.
It is always necessary to overcome the usual throng of customers to enter the oldest Modica chocolate factory where the famous bars are prepared according to gestures that refer to the ancient Aztec xocoatl, and this is because that chocolate is a unique, historical, fascinating, cult product, that Franco Ruta has always presented as a tourist attraction, a true excellence.
And of which, on several occasions, in addition to the Italian press, the international one has noticed (New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian, Independent), conveying wealthy international tourism to Modica and envied by many other cities.
Much of this fascination is thanks to Franco Ruta, who, as Repubblica writes today, studied the origins of Modica black gold and, stubborn as he was, was able to understand its future.
“His confectionery shop has become a gem that attracts hundreds of tourists a day. Without Franco Ruta, no one would know about Modica chocolate. Without him many palates would not have been conquered by that grainy chocolate “.
The Modica tablet owes its uniqueness to the artisan process that it does not understand the conching phase, a hot industrial processing technique that manages to melt the cocoa mass at an unusual temperature, around eighty degrees, making the surface of the chocolate velvety and uniform.