Every day, after school, the young Paolo Barilla would walk with his brothers to their grandmother’s apartment in the centre of Parma. Next door was the pasta factory where his father Pietro and uncle Gianni ran the company, first established by his great-grandfather almost a century before.
“We loved going there. To us it was a sort of playground,” says Barilla, now the company’s vice-chairman, recalling the times their father was running late to take them home for lunch. “We liked to slide down the rolling conveyor for the pasta boxes and watch the ladies cracking eggs, four to a hand.”
Barilla is sitting in Academia Barilla’s gastronomic library, on the site of the original factory, surrounded by books on food dating from the early 16th century to the present day. “This place is part of my earliest memories,” he says.
Today the Barilla company, which Barilla manages alongside his brothers Guido and Luca, produces 1m tonnes of pasta each year, to be enjoyed around the world. But the values established by earlier generations remain key. “My father always said we must give people only the food that we would give to our own children. We make no compromise,” says Paolo.
“Coming together to eat, with the pasta’s cooking time often announced as a countdown to the table, remains an Italian ritual. Perhaps families no longer do it three times a day – life is busy – but those times remain sacred. Food is still a sign of love.”
Respecting tradition does not run counter to embracing innovation though. “There is sometimes resistance to change when it touches certain parts of our heritage – including the gastronomic – but it is right that we allow today’s generation, and tomorrow’s, to express their ideas. We should not freeze time or say there is only one way.”
In food, he says, this means understanding modern consumption patterns and concerns – food safety, traceability, nutrition and wellbeing, respect for the environment as well as taste – while valuing tradition and passion.
“We must never lose control of our simple Italian flavours: wheat, tomato, olive oil, basil. Food, above all, must taste good. It should bring joy. But we cannot ignore technology. The microwave exists and, if consumers want that, we must put the very best ingredients we have into those 30 seconds.”
The challenge, Barilla says, is to maintain focus to produce a top-quality product. It is a discipline he first learned in a very different arena. Until 1990, Barilla was a racing car driver, part of the team that won at Le Mans in 1985. “I carry over that motivation, the control. On the track, whether something good or bad happens, you must hold your course – remain steady. You cannot be overtaken by emotion.”
For the Barilla brothers, it’s all about the long view, and the goal of improvement “a daily one, in every sphere”.
“I never think about success,” he says, when asked how he sees the company’s growth. “I think always about the progress we are making. If you are curious there is always more to do.”
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