The panettón, the Italian sweet bread that reigns at Christmas in Peru

Lima.- More than 10,000 kilometers separate the tables of Peru and Italy, but at Christmas there is a common element on the tablecloth: the panetón or panettone, the sweet bread filled with raisins and candied fruits that is enjoyed on both sides of the Atlantic as a legacy of the migration of the European country in the 19th century and that currently reaches millions of homes. In Peru, panettone is undoubtedly the typical Christmas sweet, as it is bought massively in supermarkets, offered in small shops and is among the most traditional gifts that companies give to their workers. His surprising reign in a country with a rich gastronomy is due to the large migration of Italian citizens, especially from the northern region of Liguria, as explained to EFE by the historian Juan Luis Orrego. "The particularity of the Italian migration to our country is that the great majority, 90%, of the Italians who arrived were from the Liguria region and left from the port of Genoa. These Italians spoke the Ligurian dialect, Ligure, and brought their culinary tradition," added Orrego.

Since the Genoese were great sailors, in Liguria bread and biscuits were not made with yeast, because that caused them to ferment quickly, so the sweet bread made with the typical candied fruit was almost flat. "When these Italian Genoese arrived in Peru, what they made here was the Ligurian panettone, therefore the panettone that was consumed in Peru was flat and not the one that is consumed now, which is Milanese and does have yeast," explained Orrego.

The Contribution of Italian Migration

This story is also remembered by Georgio Chiappe, the owner of the Italian bakery Levaggi, located in the Lima district of Lince, who told EFE that when his father ran the business, the traditional panettone from Liguria was sold. "It was a flat panettone, which didn't use yeast, had a lot of fruit, and was very spongy inside. We used to make it in Levaggi, but it's no longer made," explained Chiappe.

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Orrego added that the Italian migration also brought to Peru the chard pie, minestrone soup, pesto, which in Peru is adapted to green sauce, and the consumption of pasta, among other dishes that are now traditional in Peruvian gastronomy. The Ligurian migrants, whose dialect could still be heard in Lima until 30 years ago, left Italy in the second half of the 19th century due to a demographic, economic, and political crisis, and many of them were republicans who fled after the establishment of the monarchy following the unification war.

The expansion of panettone

Since the late 19th century, this sweet was consumed by Italian families and the Lima elite, but little by little, with the influence of American customs, through cinema and television, Peruvian Christmas was changing.

Orrego specified that in the decades of 1950 and 1960, the placement of the Christmas tree was integrated, as well as the consumption of turkey at the Christmas Eve dinner and the Milanese panettone. Thus, the sweet began to emerge from the artisan bakeries of Lima and began to be manufactured industrially, which made its price more accessible and, from the 80s, its massive consumption began. Currently, in addition to having made this sweet bread their own, Peru exports it every year to numerous countries around the world, especially those with a large Peruvian migration, such as the United States and Chile. According to the Association of Exporters of Peru (ADEX), between January and October 2025, the export of Peruvian panettone exceeded 7 million dollars, an increase of 3.6% compared to the same period last year. In addition, manufacturers have opted to make panettones with recipes that fuse international tradition with national and Andean ingredients such as maca, native cocoa, quinoa flour, and dehydrated goldenberry, among other products.