Without a doubt, children are the protagonists of this tradition in which, despite the different ways of celebrating it around the world, the painted hard-boiled egg, rabbits and chocolate are the main elements.
The egg and the rabbit, synonymous with rebirth and fertility, may have their origins in paganism, since a large number of pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, were introduced at Easter, and the egg became the emblem of life that germinates at the beginning of spring.
Currently, giving eggs or rabbits for Easter is a deep-rooted tradition in the Mediterranean area of Spain, as well as in northern European countries, or in countries such as the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile.
In all these countries, during these days, their pastry chefs get to work at a frenetic pace that has no other purpose than to achieve the highest levels of creativity and imagination to surprise customers.
“It is the time of most creativity with the permission of Christmas, since, when it ends, that is when we begin to imagine new shapes and compositions,” says pastry chef Jordi Bordas, captain of the Spanish team that was proclaimed World Pastry Champion 2011. .
And for these professionals, these are days in which competition increases and the purely commercial matters take a backseat, since they are forced to “make new setups,” says Bordas.
“The idea is to look for nice shapes like a strawberry or an acorn or funny animals like a pig,” says this pastry chef, who is also forced to repeat shapes from other years due to the great success they obtained, such as the cactus. created from three or four chocolate eggs painted green.
CREATIVITY AND QUALITY.
Quality is not at odds with the creativity of these products, and the creators of these thousand and one forms opt for the best ingredients, because children, some of their most demanding customers, would not allow themselves to eat chocolate devoid of flavor and texture.
As Bordas expresses, throughout his career he has been able to verify that it is the little ones in the house who, 50%, “push” parents to buy one figure or another.
But, as for quality, this pastry chef, a chocolate expert and member of the 21Brix group, assures that they work with a chocolate of 60 or 70% purity, fluid enough to work with calmly: “if you go to a percentage of lower cocoa, it costs more work,” he says.
And the fact is that chocolate for tasting or tasting is not the same as chocolate used for work, since the latter, when melted, loses those nuances that make it special.
«A topping for making Easter eggs or cakes does not have a specific origin; Mixtures are made, with a medium flavor, neither high nor low. Most of us work with good chocolates, but not like that at Easter: it doesn’t make much sense, with a multi-selection there is more than enough,” clarifies the 2011 World Pastry Champion.
SWEET WORLD RITES.
It is possible to travel around the world through the different manifestations of Easter gastronomy.
In the United States, only the two world wars and occasionally bad weather have prevented children from running after Easter eggs on the White House lawn in the traditional race that President Rutherford B. Hayes introduced in 1878. This is the “Easter Egg Roll”, which is nothing more than a race in which children fight to roll colored hard-boiled eggs.
In recent decades, on Easter Sunday in Bolivia it has been part of the tradition to give chocolate Easter eggs and rabbits. This is also the case in Spain, where they gain more strength in Catalonia and Valencia and are called “Easter monkeys.”
In Brazil, since the beginning of Lent, supermarkets have offered a wide assortment of Easter eggs, as do grocery stores in Uruguay.
For its part, Paraguay has also imported the custom of the Easter egg or bagel, a common gift for godparents who are usually visited on Easter Sunday.
The United Kingdom has a tradition in which the Easter rabbit hides Easter eggs during the night of Easter Sunday so that children can search for them the next day, in a game known as the “egg hunt.” ».
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