Would you steal Nutella?
In 2013, thieves stole $21,000 worth of Nutella from a warehouse in Germany. College cafeterias face massive losses from pilfered Nutella. Columbia University is reportedly losing $5000 a week, $250,000 a year, because students are sneaking copious amounts of the stuff back to their dorms.
So what is Nutella, and why all the fuss? It’s a creamy hazelnut and chocolate spread. Not dark chocolate (I so wish it was!) but a motherly milk chocolate that plucks at the comfort-food heartstrings of people around the globe.
When I lived in Europe, Nutella was everywhere – an everyday food-fixture, like peanut butter in the States. Nutella has since been discovered in America. A few years ago, you could only find it in specialty stores. Now it’s in every supermarket; fan websites swoon over it; and there’s even a World Nutella Appreciation Day (lots of drama here: Nutella’s makers at first shut down the site and event, but reversed course in response to public outrage.)
Enter: Nutella: The 30 Best Recipes. It’s a die-cut cookbook in the shape of a Nutella jar. Presumably, you could give this book with a real Nutella jar as a combo gift (perhaps find a black-market jar for cheap, in Germany?).
For those who want to take Nutella to new heights, here’s a round up of recipes from Nutella:
From:
Nutella: The 30 Best Recipes, by Ferraro U.S.A. Also available as an ebook.
I’m an author and journalist specializing in food and cooking. Caffeine Basics is my ninth book. I’ve written about the U.S. wine industry, international foods, shrinking your “cookprint,” and cooking with kids. Great Bar Food at Home was a James Beard Award finalist, and Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen won a Green Book Award. Publishers include John Wiley & Sons, ClarksonPotter, Macmillan and others.
