Qualitaly_121

FEB. MAR. 2021 XI suggestions could also come from them. After all, we are all in the same boat and some solutions could come from those who do not make the food but consume it. Also, because the convenience factor is no longer enough. Habits change and become attitudes. Snacks, for example, have changed. With increasingly flexible timetables, they pass as comfort food and need to be rethought, always taking sweet and savoury into account: ice cream in all seasons, meat burgers but also vegetable burgers, fruit juices... Taking advantage of concessions and licences, why not create new time slots in which to serve or allow snacks to be taken away? Let’s re-evaluate the snack. Let’s take our minds off lunch and dinner and rethink new mealtimes. TURNING THE RESTAURANT SIGN INTO A REAL BRAND This is a key moment, an incredible opportunity to reposition yourself. We cannot think that only large chains should invest in their brand. We have to think that each restaurant is a unique, personal reality, to be communicated carefully. For example, in the United States, many have had the ingenious idea of personalising sanitising equipment by giving away gels and masks bearing the name of the restaurant. It’s a clever marketing move that goes beyond communication. The customer is delighted with the gift and the restaurant’s name reaches other potential customers. The importance of a brand is no longer just about its own weight: it is all about its exclusive content. ______________________________ BOX Offering healthy foods Consumers all over the world are increasingly interested in multivitamin ingredients to fortify immunity from the virus. Having seen a drop in deaths through vitamin D treatment, it is also possible to think about using ingredients such as fatty fish (mackerel, herring, tuna, carp, eel, catfish and salmon) but also oysters and prawns, cheese, butter, egg yolks, mushrooms and liver. We could put them in the wellness item of the menu, if seriously supported by doctors and nutritionists. ______________________________ BOX Key points to work on replicate at home hospitality ______________________________ BOX 10 tips from customers to restaurateurs 1. Increase effort to avoid waste 2. Rethink your pantry according to ingredient trends 3. Make the kitchen more versatile 4. Working on the nostalgia effect 5. Customising sanitising items 6. Use take-away containers branded with the name of the venue 7. Expanding the range of vegan recipes to include non-vegans 8. Avoid offering dishes that can be replicated at home 9. Make ready-to-use food kits 10. Study limited-time offers ______________________________ BOX Useful website www.iriworldwide.com www.cadentcg.com www.aipalette.com www.altacucina.com ______________________________ AT PAGE 30 COVER STORY Don’t steal our future Seasonal catering in the time of Covid. How to survive and how to organise yourself in this period of uncertainty by Maria Elena Dipace Will they open or not? This is the dilemma facing seasonal restaurants. Obviously we are referring to summer restaurants, since mountain huts and restaurants can now consider the winter season lost, especially after the latest blow that has seen the opening of the ski lifts postponed once again. At this point we can only focus on the summer, hoping that the scenario will finally change, and we can resume a pseudo-normal life. This is the wish of Fabio Petrozzi, a Neapolitan restaurateur based in San Teodoro, Sardinia. Fabio has belonged to a family of restaurateurs for generations, his grandfather Antonio De Vito, in 2001, was featured on the cover of our magazine Qualitaly. Twenty years later, his nephew, Fabio, is on the same stage, discussing a difficult subject with us: the survival of the sector and the prospects for the young people who have invested in it. Yours is a family of restaurateurs. Tell us how this adventure in the world of catering began... The story begins a century ago. My grandmother’s (Maria Scielzo) family had a bread oven. Her father later created one of the first fryers in the centre of Naples, in the Spanish quarter. A prototype of street food... From Naples to Sardinia. How does this happen? We came to Sardinia out of necessity, after the devastating earthquake in Irpinia in 1980. My grandmother Maria and her husband, Antonio De Vito, had opened a restaurant in Naples. The restaurant was closed due to the earthquake. My grandmother, who loved Sardinia, convinced my grandfather to move to Cugnana Verde, near Olbia. They started looking for a place to continue their work as restaurateurs. They found one in Porto Rotondo in the Gulf of Marinella. This was the start of a new adventure in a place that was beginning to show great potential in terms of tourism; Costa Smeralda, which soon became one of the most sought-after holiday resorts both nationally and internationally. Hence the decision to move to Porto Cervo where the Dante restaurant was opened, which is still there today and is run by his children, Mimma and Giuseppe (my father). At what age did you enter the world of catering? What’s your background? I didn’t have any hotel training because my father always said that if I decided to do this job he would teach me directly. So, in 2010 I started working with him for a while in the summer, but I didn’t have a clear idea of what I really wanted to do when I grew up. Working with a family is not always easy, you are seen as privileged by the other employees... so in 2013 I decided to set up my own business, again with the help of my family. I was 22 years old. The restaurant was bought in March (in San Teodoro) and opened on 24 April of the same year. I wanted to call it by my name ‘Da Fabio’. In your restaurant there is a mix of Campanian and traditional Sardinian cuisine. How do they come together? Four years ago, chef Massimiliano Villani advised me to mix Neapolitan tradition with some typical Sardinian dishes. I was intrigued by the experiment and we launched into this mix that immediately caught the attention of customers. A successful experiment! You have distanced yourself from your family’s cooking...