In 1890, Pietro Gentilini opened a grocery shop and bakery in the Esquilino district in Rome. But this was just the beginning: four more shops were opened in the space of a few years. This small bakery became increasingly popular thanks to a tasty biscuit called Osvego, produced by Gentilini, which revisited the recipe of the Oswego, an Anglo-Saxon biscuit, but instead uses top-quality Italian ingredients such as flour, butter, barley malt and honey. The secret of the master confectioner lies in baking, which has to be done very slowly: while still warm, the biscuits are placed in the iconic tin boxes which, today, still contain these tasty Roman biscuits.
At the turn of the 20th century, Pietro Gentilini entered industrial production: as many as 34 types of biscuits were created, as well as traditional Italian festive baked goods such as panettone, colomba, torrone and the well-known Delizia Romana. In 1915, the Gentilini train, which is still the symbol of this company from Rome, was launched for the first time. After World War II, Ettore, Pietro’s son, took the helm of the company: during this period, the well-known Margherite biscuits were first produced, and it was Ettore himself who invented the machine used to make them at the factory.
