Frau Knam opens her pastry shop (next to the “king”)

Now the «King of chocolate» Ernst Knam and his wife Alessandra Mion they each have a pastry shop, and they are facing each other: Mrs. Knam, as we all learned to know her by following her Instagram account (@FrauKnam) with which she guides us to discover simple recipes for master desserts, on October 2nd she opens her own place, just a stone’s throw from her husband’s, in via Anfossi 19, in Milan.

A place exclusively for women “apart from the chef Knam who signs everything” (Frau Knam often points this out, and with pride), it is a new address where you can taste small and sublime patisserie: cannons filled at the moment, cream puffs sweet and savory with fillings that follow the seasonality of raw materials, semi-sphere chocolate pralines, spoon desserts and a different cake every week. Then chocolate bars with unusual flavors (crackling caramel will be a must), sablé biscuits, jams, sugared almonds from Avola, Frau Knam Señorita 72 dark chocolate (which her husband dedicated to her) and much more.

«I imagined my pastry as a place to get Sunday sweets, the tray she carried from her grandmother. At the same time it is a place where have breakfast accompanying a cupcake with a takeaway coffee, and stop at every hour of the day for an ever-changing cuddle », says the« Queen of Chocolate », who has taken care of all the details for this new opening. She was the one who took care of the project, supported by Matteo Bruschi, creating a place that also tells about its past in the world of design with pieces of great impact, such as the windows of Antonio Citterio that highlight the artist’s pastry and vases Carlo Moretti.

The result is a place intimate and extremely refined, which exactly reflects what Alessandra Mion imagined: «The project was born during the lockdown and in that period I even decided which products I wanted to offer», he explains. It was in those long months where we all tried to pass the time in the kitchen that Mrs. Knam – who is in charge of marketing in the company – she moved from theory to practice and began preparing sweets with her exceptional teacher, her husband, until she became passionate and became an expert. «Chef Knam is very strict – says Frau Knam (who yes, calls her husband “Chef”) – but to bring out my sweet side she doesn’t scold me: she makes me understand in her own way that she expects a lot. It takes character to follow it, and in the our case also works because there is love“. The Knam, on the other hand, have never made a secret of it: they also told about it in a book written by four hands – Knam & Knam, With us everyone can become a pastry chef (Solferino) – which contains romantic anecdotes interspersed with 50 recipes among which Ernst’s great, simplified cults stand out.

And if it is always he, the king, who prepares the delicacies of his wife’s pastry, it is always she who decides everything: «This project – says Frau Knam – is a 50 and 50: I put in the creativity and the desire to do things. He, on the other hand, with his art and his professionalism realizes them“. The risk of doing it competition? “There isn’t – says Alessandra Mion – because we do different things: from Knam you can get the cakes, its wonderful pralines, from me the small pastry. In short, when you pass in via Anfossi you can come to both of them ».

Always together, soon also on TV: from 16 October Ernst and Alessandra will be on Rai2 with Sweet Quiz, a quiz game with Alessandro Greco in which there is a feast of sweets up for grabs And then? “For now – concludes Frau Knam – I would say that we stop, but we continue like this”. In the gallery above some photos of the pastry shop