Festive Curiosities | Peck, Milan's Christmas Icon
Festive food is a serious business in Italy, as it should be.
Welcome to our Cabinet of Curiosities, the source for your monthly food digest and discovery of all things curious about the world of Italian food culture.
Chances are that if you grew up in Milan, you know about Peck. For everyone else, welcome to the iconic essence of a Milanese Christmas. Take a seat, enjoy the journey.
The gourmet store has ancient origins, dating back to a time when electricity was a novelty: 1883. What began as a small gastronomia speedily transitioned into a favorite amongst Milan’s wealthy families. Which brings us to today, where Peck still remains an icon to all buone forchette, from Milan and beyond.
This week I had the incredible opportunity to peek behind the scenes of Peck’s world: a set of kitchens, workshops, aging rooms, storage units, butchers, a caseificio and a treasure room that all run like clockwork. All in one same location, Via Spadari 9, a stone’s throw from Piazza Duomo.
Utmost quality is the cornerstone of the whole business, visible through every product, all handmade rather than tasked to a machine. This ranges from Peck’s lemon juice, which is strictly hand-squeezed, as it makes all the difference in their mayonnaise (of which they produce 20 tons per year) to their mozzarella and burrata, made directly on site every morning from a muscly casaro. Another product which surprised me is their bresaola: it is seasoned on site, massaged every five days and takes a total of 120 days to be ready for sale.
Where else in the world are you going to find such quality and craftsmanship one-hundred steps from the main Cathedral? Nowhere — and that’s what makes i milanesi even more proud to call Peck their own.
Peck’s Icons
It is known that at Christmas, traditions reign. Most families, like my own, tend to eat the same menu each year, with slight variations – yet all the evergreens, be it smoked salmon or tortellini in brodo, are ever-present.
For many Milanesi, having one (or more) iconic Peck products on the table is an intrinsic element of Christmas, the day simply wouldn’t be the same otherwise. Most of the iconic products associated with Peck have been around for decades, and are almost a rare sight in any other shop. Cocktail Sauce-covered lobster tails; slabs of liver pâté engulfed by jelly; discs of game meat, pistachios and black truffle (marbré) are just a few of Peck’s icons.
To further prove Milanesi’s attachment to the iconic liver pâté (that goes as far as being branded, to be truly unmistakeable), I was let into just exactly how many are sold during the festive period. One ton of pâté, which equals roughly three-thousand slabs, makes its way to dinner tables all around Milan and beyond.
However, it isn’t just the iconic dishes that customers come back for. Quality is in every product sold at Peck, and all the lengthy production processes aren’t often showcased. An example is Parmigiano, which arrives straight from the Apennine at 12 months of aging. As Peck is able to recreate the ideal aging conditions, it is left for a further 18 months, allowing them to sell a 30 month aged Parmigiano, a true delicious rarity.
As we moved through the behind the scenes, all of a sudden I found myself walking from the butchery into the wine cellar. Just like that, I was thrust back into the public realm of Peck. Polished shelves and shiny bottles welcomed me, in what is renowned for being one of the best collections of wine - especially French and large format bottles - in the whole of Italy.
Christmas, Peck’s rush hour (or rather, month)
Just as you thought Peck couldn’t get more Milanese, they went all out, partnering with another quintessentially Milanese institution: La Scala Opera Theatre. You’ll find original scripts from some of the greatest operas ever written and vintage tutus propped up between jars of mostarda in every shop window.
On the 24th of December, families and food enthusiasts line up at dawn in front of Peck, waiting with anticipation for the sound of the shutters opening—which happens at 7.30AM! Regulars pour into the shop, polished to the nines for the most important day of the year, to buy 672 grams of tortellini; 757 grams of insalata russa (which features the mayo made with exclusively hand-squeezed lemons) and countless boxes of chocolate. Each December sees more than one-hundred-thousand people visit Peck.
This is why Peck, in Milan, is synonymous with Christmas.
The lasagne at Peck is one of my favorite dishes in the world. The experience of ogling the incredible products is not to be missed when visiting Milano!