A delectable Da Vinci

The little shopping bag is elegant, black with dark red for the lettering and the string. Look inside and you see a container of the same colouring. Open it and you find biscotti, each one carefully wrapped and labelled.

Called the "Enzo Peroni Collection", this upmarket product of Italian biscuits was introduced last June, not only in the 120 Starbucks outlets throughout Thailand, and not just in five-star hotels, such as the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, the Sukhothai, JW Marriott and Alila Cha-am, but also in Italy.

Yet, the collection is much more than a product. For Italian businessman Enzo Peroni, these carefully wrapped biscotti highlight his own life's journey, his business philosophy, his Italian culture, his gratitude to all the cities of the world that have given him a home - and his love of Leonardo da Vinci.

If this sounds complex, then it is - Peroni is a complex man. Born in 1951 in Celleno, a small town about 80 kilometres northwest of Rome, Peroni grew up in an extended family scattered throughout farming communities in the area. Farming and raising livestock were daily responsibilities, as was Cafe Buongiorno, a cafe run by his grandmother. From the land came good food and Peroni learnt from his grandmother, his mother and his aunts to appreciate nature's bounty.

It was from an uncle, however, that he learnt the workings of a business. By the time he was 24, he had set up a management consultancy specialising in textiles, construction and food processing - all aimed at helping Italian companies prepare for conducting business in the Middle East and Europe.

Peroni himself began travelling, not only to the Middle East and Europe but also to Asia, and in 1980, he finally settled in Hong Kong with his wife, Theresa, where he was the managing director and chief executive of a publicly listed company. Within 10 years, he had set up branch offices in China, Korea, Thailand, Finland, Canada and Italy.

He also founded the EP Group with offices in Hong Kong, Italy, Thailand and Korea to distribute Italian products in construction, food processing and machine tools in Asia and the Middle East.

In 1998, he moved to Thailand and founded, as a side business, Cafe Buongiorno, to offer home-style Italian dishes of the kind served at the Cafe Buongiorno his grandmother once owned. It was here that he introduced genuine Italian biscotti, each flavour a special recipe from a family member in Italy.

"The Italian lifestyle is similar to Thailand's," he says. "Both have a commitment to family values, a love of festivals and a passion for beauty." Both, he said, connect culture and traditions with food, "all the ingredients to develop your senses, from the preparations to the serving to the eating".

The key word here is "passion", an emotion he learnt from Leonardo da Vinci. From the time he was a boy, Peroni has studied this well-known Italian painter who lived more than 500 years ago. You may know of him from the popular novel, "The Da Vinci Code", but Leonardo is also admired as a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.

For Peroni, the key to Da Vinci's greatness lies in his creative thinking. "The secret to his varied areas of knowledge is his curiosity," Peroni says, "his thirst for knowledge, sharp powers of observation, strict logic, universality of vision and, above all, 'the will to do things'."

It is through Da Vinci's vision that Peroni developed his own theories on management and education. He would, in fact, disagree that they are theories. "They are the results of my own observations of my business experiences," he says.

He makes these available to students, business people - and the partners in his various business activities. "We all need to know one another," he says, "and understand how to make the business go forward."

This passion can be seen in his activities. At his Buongiorno Cafe, on Sukhumvit Soi 33, you can enjoy good food in pleasant surroundings and you can also enjoy the best of what Italy has to offer, through special events, such as the celebrations of Ferrari and Lamborghini, Italian exhibitions on the Renaissance and, of course, Da Vinci.

At the same time, Peroni has continued to refine and expand the range of Buongiorno products. Through an arrangement with Starbucks Thailand, Buongiorno offers sandwiches, bakery products and biscotti in every Starbucks outlet throughout the Kingdom.

Last year, Buongiorno opened a centre in Bangkok, which manufactures Buongiorno products for distribution throughout Thailand and, eventually, the region. By August, Buongiorno biscottificio kiosks will be set up around Bangkok.

For Peroni, Buongiorno's growth is the result of hard work, attention to detail and another of Da Vinci's principles: "Call it 'connessione'," he says, "the recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things."

And so, the Enzo Peroni Collection features six biscotti, each one a different flavour: the "Arrone" and "Viterbo" of his childhood; the "Rome" of his university days; the "Hong Kong" of his time in the former British colony; the "Middle East"; and the "Thailand".

"They're all connected through education, business and the joy of life," Peroni says.