As you may have guessed by a peek through the pages of our magazine and a quick scroll through our recipe archives, we're big fans of all things spreadable. Soft cheeses, butter, icing, nut butter, hummus, tapenade, chutney, jam; you name it, we adore it—and likely have it stocked in our refrigerator or pantry as we speak. 

While we're fond of that entire spread of spreads, one of our all-time favorite shelf-stable options is Nutella. We're not the only ones. The parent company, Ferrero Group, makes so much of the cocoa-nut combo that they purchase about 25 percent of the world's supply of hazelnuts, the grandson of Nutella founder/current executive chairman of Ferrero SpA, Giovanni Ferrero tells BBC News.