Biography
As a child he dreamt of being a policeman, but his mother convinced him to become a pastry chef: 'That way we will have cake every Sunday'. He attended a pastry school, gained experience in starred restaurants around the world, arrived in Milan in 1989 and worked as head pastry chef in Gualtiero Marchesi's restaurant. In 1992 he opened his own shop, L'Antica Arte del Dolce, which in 2015 changed its name to Pasticceria Ernst Knam. A creative, experimental lover, over the years he has won many pastry and cooking competitions.
He is the author of several recipe books that bring the art of the chef closer to readers who are passionate about desserts and cooking in general.
Since 2012 he has been a face on television: Il Re del cioccolato is the programme with which he made his debut and which made him known to the general public, followed by Che Diavolo di Pasticceria and Bake Off Italia, where he is a judge of Italy's amateur pastry chefs for the tenth edition. He has participated as a guest on numerous cooking programmes and special episodes, always on channels dedicated to food.
In 2021, he starred in the TV programme Dolce Quiz, where two teams of VIP contestants answer questions about Italian desserts, and on I Fatti Vostri, in the column La Dolceria, together with his wife Frau Knam.
