Pasticceria Walter Musco
Walter Musco's Action Painting cake hides three chocolate mousses, Guanaya 70%, Jivara 40% and Ivoire 30%, under white icing dripped with color for Jackson Pollock.
Why go
Walter Musco came to pastry from a career as a gallery owner and never worked under a pastry chef. He went to the Gambero Rosso school, then cooked at Acquolina, on the pastry side at Angelo Troiani's and with Antonello Colonna. I learned by getting angry, throwing out a lot of stuff and reading a myriad of books,
he told Lavinia Martini of Puntarella Rossa in 2021. He took over the pastry shop on Largo Benedetto Bompiani in Tor Marancia in 2011 and renamed it after himself ten years later (Puntarella Rossa). Gambero Rosso's 2025 pastry guide gave it Tre Torte, its top mark, at 92 points (Gambero Rosso).
His cakes start from artists. Musco tells the story of an event in 2013 where Massimo Bottura was taken with his white homage to Piero Manzoni's Achromes and asked what was inside. Musco told him mango and passion fruit. In Musco's telling, Bottura thought the cake should be white inside and out, so Musco rebuilt it around almond: From there it was not just an aesthetic form any more, but a content that justified it.
The Gran Cretto, for Alberto Burri, pairs mulberry with almond. Musco said of them: My cakes are very cold, minimal, which is why not everyone likes them
(Puntarella Rossa).
In the same interview he held the classics to a cook's standard: Cooks can know how to do everything well, but trust me, they have to know how to make spaghetti al pomodoro. So here, for Father's Day, there have to be bignè, and they have to be very well made
(Puntarella Rossa). Michela Becchi of Gambero Rosso named those bignè di San Giuseppe, the fried choux of the saint's day, the best in Rome in March 2026. She found him a cook who never wanted to educate anyone, only to please everyone with an excellent but understandable product
(Gambero Rosso). Andrea Antonini, chef of Imàgo at the Hotel Hassler, put the shop on his short list in 2022: Three unmissable addresses in Rome: Roscioli, the Walter Musco-Bompiani pastry shop and the Otaleg gelateria. No offence to anyone I have not mentioned
(Gambero Rosso).
Order this / avoid
- Order: the bignè di San Giuseppe, around Father's Day. Michela Becchi (2026):
Inside, the real magic: one of the best crèmes pâtissières in the city, a bright yellow ocean to dive into bite after bite, unafraid of getting a little messy.
2 - Order: the cannolo di sfoglia. Michela Becchi (2026):
A cone of fragrant puff pastry that holds a swirl of cream you never tire of.
2 - Order: the ciavattone (Musco calls it
sfoglia romana
, Roman puff pastry). Michela Becchi (2026) found it very crisp from the caramelized sugar and best filled with apricot jam.2 - Order: the maritozzo (a bun filled with whipped cream). Gambero Rosso (2023):
Well risen, the dough compact and soft, filled generously with lots of delicious whipped cream, sweet but not cloying.
4 - Order: the profiterole allo zabaione, choux on a shortcrust disc filled with zabaione cut with cream, 6 euros when Veronica Guerrini of Puntarella Rossa picked it in 2023.5
What locals & experts say
- Bargiornale (2026): a finalist for pastry bar of the year in its October 2026 Barawards, under the old name, Bompiani.7
Good to know
- Where: Largo Benedetto Bompiani 8, Tor Marancia. Until 2021 it was Pasticceria Bompiani, after the square. Some guides still use that name.1
- Breakfast: Italian cornetti and French croissants, at the counter or sitting down, with a fried cornetto filled with crème pâtissière for the bold (Michela Becchi, 2026).2
- Phone: 06 5124103.1
Verdict
should-visit — Make the trip to Tor Marancia for the cream pastries of a Tre Torte shop, the cannolo di sfoglia and the fried bignè around San Giuseppe. Look at the art cakes, but know their maker calls them cold and minimal.