The Italians enter the Christmas spirit with a fragrant, yeasty slice of panettone -- Christmas isn’t Christmas without it on our festive tables. We can never get enough of it, especially for us who are Milanese. We have a near-cultish devotion to panettone when the Christmas season kicks in.

But how many Italians know that an increasing number of American people are also enjoying the pleasure of an indulgent panettone? And it’s not only those from the substantial Italian-American communities. This new panettone culture has caught on in California and other parts of the US. In cities that boast the country’s best delis and some of the best bread such as NYC, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, the panettone has begun to measure up.