Chef German Rizzo is raising the bar using quality ingredients and his master baking skills to make Panettone from scratch inside his restaurant in Glen Cove.

Not only does Rizzo bake this special Italian style fruitcake, which takes three days to make, he does it in the bakery he custom designed in the basement of his restaurant Plado Tasting Bar. In fact, he’s the only local Chef on Long Island baking Panettone out of his restaurant.

Chef German Rizzo says he is always up for a challenge and making Panettone from scratch is one of the most challenging bakes out there. Rizzo says, “Panettone is a real labor of love, this is not work for me, it's a passion”.

Panettone is a traditional Italian cake given as a gift during the holiday season. It dates back to the 1400s and legend has it that a kitchen gourmet named Tony was making dessert with leftover ingredients. “Pane” in Italian is bread. Pane Di Tony or Panettone was born.

Chef Rizzo says he only uses high-quality simple ingredients to make Panettone and perfecting the recipe took him 5 years. Separate from the starter dough, it takes three days to prepare between the rising, resting, shaping, baking, and then the cooling, where the cakes must hang upside down for 12 hours. Rizzo then glazes the Panettone with different flavors, including Nutella and Pistachio. The result is a delicious light and airy cake celebrating the holiday season.

So far in the past two months Rizzo has made 450 Panettone all of them selling out as soon as he makes them at his restaurant. The cakes can stay fresh for up to three months in the box.