Panettone season in Italy is not subtle. Since moving to the Veneto, I’ve watched the tall, dome-shaped loaves take over every bar, grocery, and kitchen counter from November through January —gifted, debated, and ranked. I now have my own opinions and favorites. So when news breaks about a new flour built for large leavened products like the panetone, i’m listening.
On the ridge of the Paderno plateau outside Milan, where Leonardo da Vinci found inspiration for the rocky riverscapes that appear in the background of Virgin of the Rocks, the first electrically powered mill in Italy was built in 1882. In the early 1900s, the Colombo family took over and more than a century later, Molino Colombo is still milling here, still family-run, and still making history.
The latest is Opera, a new flour co-created with Giovanna Chen Shih-chieh, a world-renowned Taiwanese panettone artisan, CEO of I Love Italy (Taiwan’s acclaimed Italian food importer), and head coach of the Taiwanese team that won the 2025 Panettone World Championship at HostMilano. That title is no small feat as the panettone is Italy’s most technically demanding holiday bread, requiring precise fermentation, obsessive temperature control, and a near-spiritual relationship with natural yeast. Chen came to it through the best possible teacher. She was also the first Taiwanese student of Rolando Morandin, one of the great masters of Italian pastry.
Launched globally on May 11 at TuttoFood in Milan, Opera is already available in Taiwan, the United States, Spain, France, Singapore, and Hong Kong. It’s completely additive-free, built around Molino Colombo’s soft milling process, a slow grinding method that preserves wheat’s protein structure and aromatic complexity.
Designed for large leavened products and sourdough refreshment, it delivers balanced, workable, lively doughs. “a clean-label flour that can support everything from sourdough starter maintenance to producing perfect Panettone, Pandoro, and rustic breads,” Chen says, on Instagram. “Trust me—once you use it, there’s no going back.”
Opera is also the first flour in Molino Colombo’s history to bear a female creative signature. “Opera has the grace of silk and the resilience of steel,” Chen says. The launch targets Asia strategically, where the request for premium Italian pastry continues to climb.
Chen’s profile in this market gives Molino Colombo a credible cultural bridge into a region that isn’t just importing panettone anymore, it’s learning to make it.
Molino Colombo’s Opera flour.
@pierogiacon
This article was originally published on Forbes.com