The name Nutella was invented by Michele Ferrero while he was with his wife Maria Franca in Frankfurt to celebrate their German business. The entrepreneur goes out just before dinner at 6pm and walks back and forth on the River Main together with his close collaborator Severino Chiesa. Two hours later, Maria Franca meets Ferrero in the elevator who tells her: «Maria, don’t tell me anything, my head must be free, give me a moment more time because I’m almost there». He stares at the river from the window then turns around saying: «Nutella». His wife looks at him confused and he explains to her as if in the throes of a vision: “It’s the name of the product that will run around the world.”
Even on the occasion of the invention of the Kinder egg he had a real epiphany: “It will be Easter all year round”. His aim was to convince mothers and grandmothers to buy it, so he had to put more milk and less cocoa and a little surprise inside.
The reason why Maria Franca decided to tell her story
Michele Ferrero he was shy, reserved and didn’t even give interviews. He even denied it to Enzo Biagi, “whom he respected very much”. This is what his wife and widow Maria Franca Fissolo told Corriere della Sera Ferrero. He was always focused on the company, so much so that he kept an eye on it on the hill of his house in Alba, Piedmont. «When we arrived here he only said: “It looks good”», reports Maria Franca.
Ferrero is known to posterity for the invention of Nutella, but helped redefine the idea of snacks by launching the Kinder egg and the famous Tic Tac mints. He was constantly doing tests and tastings in the laboratory, his favorite universe, and he didn’t like to flaunt the wealth he achieved by keeping himself away from the spotlight. The journalist Mario Calabresi, author of the article on Maria Franca, made a pact with him to publish their conversation on his life only after his death.
The entrepreneur’s wife, Maria Franca, wanted to tell the Corriere about his existence to leave a clear memory of a man who was an integral part of the Italian history of consumption and of their love story, born thanks to an unexpected event. Interpreter of English, French and German, Maria Franca, a few days after being hired, was called to the upper levels of Ferrero to immediately replace the Milanese translator in a meeting who couldn’t come because she wasn’t well. Here she meets Michele for the first time who compliments her, satisfied with her performance.
The first dinner at the restaurant
A series of casual encounters occurred in which Maria Franca became defensive in the face of Michele’s kind consideration. Many “no”s flaunted by the then 22-year-old, including the confession of not being a chocolate eater when he asked her for an opinion on style on a box of chocolates and the refusal to meet him tete-tete to make him practice English on the occasion of a trip to Ghana. The widow explains that she wanted things “spontaneous and clear, without ambiguity” and then the age difference was notable, fourteen years. Only when he invited her to dinner more directly did he accept.
Once at dinner in a restaurant that had just been inaugurated for Expo Italia 61 in Pino Torinese, Michele asked her if she thought the house that could be seen from the windows of the restaurant was beautiful. A month later Ferrero bought it and seven months later they married and went to live in what would be their home for fifteen years, until the mid-Seventies, in which they raised two children, Pietro and Giovanni.
In the sights of the Red Brigades and the escape to Brussels
One day a phone call arrives from General Carlo Alberto from the Church of the Special Anti-Terrorism Unit based in Turin who urgently needed to speak to Michele. Within half an hour he shows up at the house revealing to Maria Franca’s husband that he is first on the list of targets of the Red Brigades, he has been followed for a long time, so much so that they had the parents’ route to take the children to school”. The soldier also told him that the Brigades were monitoring them from a villa on the hill and that they had to leave their house quickly by 7pm. Maria Franca and the children took refuge in the Moncalieri college and then left for Brussels, where they remained for twenty-five years. Michele, however, hid in the Langhe to continue to follow the company.
Together with Michele, Maria Franca looks for a house in Brussels and comes across a very beautiful villa that seems uninhabited. In reality, she had a caretaker who told him that the century-old owner had recently passed away and that her son was a chocolate maker. Ferrero knew him and convinced him to sell it to him after a long courtship.
The death of his son Pietro
Maria Franca remembers the loss of her son Pietro when her son was only 47 years old. «It’s inhuman – she admits – It was the only moment in my life in which I thought I wanted to die». Even though thirteen years have passed, she still finds it difficult to talk about it. Her other son, Giovanni, who loved Pietro very much, helps her to do so: «she says to me: ‘Mom, let’s remember the beautiful moments we lived with Pietro».
Ferrero’s widow has had many losses in recent years, in addition to her son, her brother and husband have also passed away. «The pains of life erase the colours, you feel like you’re living in black and white – she says – Luckily I have five grandchildren, the eldest, Michele, has a big heart and calls me every day».
The gold medal of the Republic for the Ferrero Foundation
He also talks about the Ferrero Foundation, an award-winning project, for which he received the “Gold Medal for merit in schools, culture and art” from the President of the Republic. The merit lies in having offered a different quality of aging to employees and collaborators with gyms, social programs, healthcare and laboratories. They also included the elders in the children’s activities.
For her, the future of the Ferrero company is in good hands, given that her son Giovanni has carried on his father’s legacy by making the company continue to grow.
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