Milan boasts very old culinary traditions which are reflected in a wide
variety of dishes. Saffron rice, "casseula", tripe and "panettone", the
typical Christmas cake, are but some of the most characteristic.
As panettone is the best known and most loved Milanese speciality in the
world, here is a short legend about how it was invented.
One Christmas Eve many years ago a banquet was being held at the court of
Ludovico Sforza. There was a festive atmosphere with music, singing and
jesters performing. The lavish dinner was expected to be crowned with a
fabulous cake personally prepared by the head cook and made to a most
secret recipe of his. By mistake, or inadvertently, the delicious cake
burnt. In the kitchen, beside the desperate head cook, Toni, a
kitchen-hand, mixed the remains of the burnt cake with some candied fruit,
spices, eggs and sugar. When the new cake was ready he suggested the head
cook should serve it. Despite its loaf-like appearance, they had no
alternative.
So, arranged on a platter, the cake was taken to the table where, after
some initial perplexities, it had great, unexpected success; even Ludovico
himself congratulated the head cook on his creation.
This is how, the "pan-del-Toni" (Toni's bread), hence called panettone,
became the city's emblematic cake.

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