Everyone knows that Turin is the “Italian capital of chocolate”, but did you know that the Easter egg was actually invented in the Piedmontese capital? This modern symbol of the Easter festivities, loved by children and adults alike, has Savoy origins.
The earliest attempts at creating a chocolate egg are thought to date back to Louis XIV, who had them made for the French court, although they didn't meet with much success there. In Turin in 1725, it was Signora Giambone, the owner of a shop, who first had the idea of filling empty hen's egg shells with melted chocolate. Unlike in France, the idea was met with much greater enthusiasm in Turin. It wasn't until the early 1900s, however, that Casa Sartorio patented a system for moulding hollow shapes: the chocolate paste is placed inside hinged, closed moulds and set into a machine that, with rapid movements, spreads the paste evenly across the whole inner surface. Once cooled, the job is done, and the shells are ready to be assembled, then coloured, decorated and personalised.
Turin's ingenuity didn't stop at the shape alone! Indeed, just a few years later, in 1925, the now-traditional “surprise“ was introduced inside the chocolate egg. Perhaps it was precisely the success of the Easter egg that gave rise to one of the best-loved sweets among Italian children, the famous Kinder Surprise, Ferrero's little egg born right here in Piedmont in 1974. The story goes that Michele Ferrero – son of Pietro, founder of the Alba-based giant – seeing children's great enthusiasm for these Easter eggs, told his colleagues he wanted to give youngsters “Easter every day”. And so what are today the most famous little eggs in the world were born. Now, as every year, all that's left to ask yourself is: dark chocolate or milk chocolate egg?