Gaia's head chef, Paolo Monti, got an unusual request last week. Fashion house Dolce & Gabbana wanted a whole lot of Italian desserts to put in their store windows for a couple of weeks over Christmas. At first, the chef protested and argued it was impossible for dishes like cannelloni to last that long. But a bit of explanation from D&G sorted out the confusion.
'It's been our tradition for the past two years to put in an Italian family-style window display for Christmas,' said D&G rep Caroline Roberts. 'It's supposed to last for over two weeks, so we couldn't use real cream, which would be unhygienic and it would smell. We asked them to replace it with icing sugar or leave them hollow. We've ordered 50 cannelloni and 30 cassatini cakes for our shops in Hong Kong and the mainland. They do this in Milan, too, and we have to make sure they are freshly made Italian desserts.'