Guido Gobino in Torino and Milano, Italy

Pietro Gobino, Co-Owner

Origins

My grandfather Giuseppe started the company in 1964. It was a different era and a completely different type of business. At the beginning, he was working in the factory with two other shareholders. He only had five percent. They were producing both chocolate and candies. Then the two other shareholders left and he became the sole owner of the business. Back in the day, he wasn’t producing high-quality chocolates; it was mostly for supermarkets. They made 20,000 Easter eggs each year. We were focused on quantity over quality but the business wasn’t going well. So he abandoned all the supermarkets and he focused on quality. Since then, our approach has never changed.

My father is Guido. When the company changed direction, it also changed the name. I don’t know if you know Bob Noto. He was a very important food journalist for Italian cuisine. He brought Ferran Adria to Italy for the first time. He was helping my father to do some sort of branding. It was in the late-90s. Marketing wasn’t as common as it is today. That’s when they switched the name to Guido. It’s catchy. I think they got the inspiration from Georgio Armani. The brand is the person.

Company Mission

We focus on tradition. But we have also developed some good dark chocolate as well as some new products, new shapes. We work bean-to-bar. We transform the raw material.

We worked with Madagascar until 2023, and we had some aromatic cocoas. It’s harder to find aromatic cocoas from Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. We were a bit unlucky because we found very good producer in the Congo region, but there were issues in the Suez Canal. He had to go all the way around Africa and when he arrived in Amsterdam, the beans were all rotten. We work very hard to source the best beans; otherwise we will not have a superior chocolate.

Signature Products

My favorite is Tourinot, which is the smaller version of the giandujotto, which my father introduced in 1995. The Tourinot is without milk, so it follows the original version of gianduja, but with a higher percentage of hazelnuts. The favorite of the public is probably a sea salt and olive oil cremino, which we produced since 2007. It was awarded best praline in the world when it came out at the Academy of Chocolate in London. Then there is a favorite of the old aficionados. We’ve been producing this since 1995. We call it amarissimo. It’s sour in Italian. Even if it’s not really sour, it’s a 63 percent blend with cocoa nibs inside to give it a twist in terms of crunchiness and taste. The latest gianjuotto we’ve introduced is giandujotto Indonesia. It won the prize for the best giandujotto in Italy when we introduced it in 2023. It’s the first single-origin gianduja we produced. We found this chocolate that worked very well with hazelnuts.

Gianduja chocolate can be dark chocolate. A lot of tourists ask for dark chocolate giandujotto. We did the Torinoto, a smaller version of giandujotto with a higher percentage of cocoa to make it a bit darker. It still has hazelnuts, but 51 percent of cocoa, so it will feel a bit bolder. Both of these are hand-tempered.

Sea salt and olive oil, we decrease the percentage of cocoa. It has a surprising feeling. Oos are very different, one from the other depending on the origin of the olives. For this particular product, I think we’ve tried 15 olive oils. Since we introduced it, we’ve been working with Ligurian olive oil, which is quite up North in Italy, so the olive oil is very delicate. For years, people have been asking, why don’t you try your products with my olive oil from Tuscany, from Puglia, from Sicily. Those olive oils can be much bolder, because they get more sun. You really don’t want the olive oil to be the protagonist. First you need to pick the right olive oil, then the right percentage.

I grew up in the factory. Here you have dark chocolate. You don’t have milk, so you have less sugar as well.

Equipment ‘Must-Haves’

I think it’s the extruder. Our gianduja is not poured into a mold; it’s still extruded on the conveyor belt and then goes into the fridge. We are one of the few companies that still make giandujotto this way. Also, it’s way older than me. The machine was around in the 60s and 70s. I tell the machine, oh you’re twice my age and still working and delivering every day. You can’t really change the rhythm. She will make 33 giandujotti every minute. She will always go at that speed; not slower, not faster.

Production Tip

Invest in raw materials. It’s a bit like Italian cuisine or Japanese cuisine. You have the best raw materials and you try not to damage them. The less you do to raw materials, the better. Also, if you’re starting out and you don’t have the knowledge, invest in the people who have the knowledge and they can teach you what to do. I had the example of my family, but not exclusively. In the factory, there are about 20-25 people working; it’s not just me and my father working there. The people working now, maybe their father worked there. We try to transmit knowledge and tradition in every direction.

In Italy there are more smaller companies, family companies. They can spend less time on the profit and loss and spend more time on quality. If you do that, the results will come.

Secrets Of Success

We need to keep the tradition and quality of the raw materials and how we produce the product. It would be easier for us to stop hand-tempering the chocolate. But if we stop hand tempering, who’s going to pass it to the next generation? On the other hand, I’d say we want to invest in new technologies, so for example, we have been working with an Italian start-up that freeze-dries fruits. So, we get these fruits and we need to keep them away from air, from oxygen. But when we add cocoa butter, they come back and taste like the real fruit from the tree. So now we can create some new products that will be just as iconic as the giandujotto.

Future Plans

We will have new origins of cocoa and certainly new origins of dark chocolate, because that’s something we really enjoy doing, and we won’t stop. Our research and development have a structure, but it’s not a strict structure. We’re not a big company, so if we become too strict in the structure, maybe we lose some ideas that come at random. As for new stores, we are always looking, but it is not easy in the States right now. But we have been working with the States now with Mizono in Chelsea Market (in New York City). We are working very well with Japan and we will do more there.

Photos by Barbara Voarino

For more info, visit  www.instagram.com/guidogobino

(This article appeared in the Spring 31 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)