'Dolci' cookbook desserts are a marriage of Italian and American flavors

Renato Poliafito is a James Beard-nominated pastry chef, cookbook author, and bakery owner. But his path to a celebrated career in food started on a different road.

The youngest child of Italian immigrant parents, Poliafito became an art student, learning about his culture through paintings and sculpture. Later he launched a career in advertising. And though he embraced his Italian heritage, he says he always felt like an American looking in.

So when he decided to leave advertising to open a bakery, it was American pastry he paid homage to. But those Italian influences started creeping in. His Ciao, Gloria bakery in Brooklyn, New York, marries those cultures — and so does his new cookbook “Dolci! American Baking with an Italian Accent.”

The book is full of tips, Italian history, photographs and recipes. Poliafito describes the book as “American with an Italian accent.” But it goes both ways, with recipes such as sourdough focaccia pizzas and a spumoni loaf.

“If you're looking at me, I definitely lean more towards American, but I have the soul and the heart of an Italian,” he says. “So it's always a marriage of these two cultures. And that's where I feel I'm at my most comfortable. It's my wheelhouse.”

By Renato Poliafito

Canoli Croccante

Minne di Sant'Agata 

Honey ricotta black and whites

Amaretto chocolate bundt

From "DOLCI!" by Renato Poliafito with Casey Elsass. Copyright © 2024 byRenato Poliafito. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of PenguinRandom House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced orreprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.