Serre Dolci Idee: History
In the highest municipality of the Varaita Valley, on the border with France, precisely in Pontechianale, since 1968 the Serre family has been producing bread, sweets and chocolate in their laboratory. It was initially run by Bartolomeo, the head of the family. He dedicated himself to the production of bread and breadsticks, however, after a few years, supported by his wife Adriana, he began to also offer desserts in his shop.
In those years, Pontechianale became a tourist destination during both summer and winter and this inspired the Serre family, over time, to create products that were increasingly linked to the territory. In the early nineties his son Gianfranco began to personally run the business.
Gianfranco Serre: the heart and mind of Dolci Idee
In addition to being born, as they say, “with my fingers in the pie”, I am passionate about the creation of new products and the processing of chocolate; as for my father, so for me as well, it becomes fundamental to use and research excellent raw materials and give my recipes a personal touch.
In 2003 I was joined by my wife Lorena who, despite being unfamiliar with this profession, quickly became passionate about my work and enthusiastically helped me in the creation and she manages the sale of our products.
Today Dolci Idee bakery by the Serre family continues to give, with its products, a moment of joy to all its customers, as it has been doing since 1968.
the sweets, “children of our mountains”
As already mentioned, my creations try to enhance as much as possible what this high mountain area can offer us in a unique and simple way. Our woods, meadows and shrubs, although they can be sometimes extreme with their climates, offer us scents, flavours and colours that could never be experienced were they not shaped by the harshness of growing and living at high altitudes.
In our products you can find aromas of the forest: larch, stone pine, juniper and wormwood, which transform our chocolate into something special.
Feeling surrounded by our woods or lying in a high altitude prairie will be simple and natural.
the delicacies
Our sculptures called rosoni, are chocolate bars that depict the typical designs of our Varaita valley such as “the sun of the Alps” or “the wind rose”; our leavened products go well with the red fruits of the woods or the fruit of our valley; our non-alcoholic chocolate, suitable for everyone, which we called varaitino, has a mountain shape and a delicate taste. Last but not least, our muntagnin digestive chocolate with a crumbly corn base and our cream flavoured with mountain aromas will give you, every time you taste it, the sweetness that only the Varaita valley can give.
Another product with a decidedly local imprint are the 60% dark chocolate bars flavoured with stone pine, larch or juniper essence.
And we cannot fail to mention the brut e bun, the fragrant biscuit with the intense flavour of Cuneo hazelnuts, and the elvu, a crumbly biscuit with stone pine essence.
Gianfranco Serre’s vision
Here you have what the Serre bakery, pastry shop and chocolate shop wants to be: a place where taste, sweetness, tradition and innovation meet all the beauty and goodness of the mountains.
I want to give you, through a simple but effective phrase, what the mountain can give to all the people who admire it with simplicity:
“When a person travels around the world he sees it, when he is in the mountains he enjoys it”
Merry sweetness to everybody