Qualitaly_121

FEB. MAR. 2021 XI I They gave me the foundations, which are very solid. As time went by, however, I realised that the time had come to create something different, something more original, without ever forgetting my origins and what my family passed on to me. I consider myself very lucky and very satisfied with what I have created. There is still a lot of work to be done, but it will all come together slowly. Your grandfather, Antonio De Vito, was featured on one of the covers of Qualitaly. Back in 2001... I remember well that cover with my grandfather dressed as a chef in a peculiar pose. His pockets were empty outside his uniform. It was the period of the changeover from the lira to the euro and that shot was meant to symbolise the economic crisis that this change of currency had generated in the pockets of Italians who, therefore, had less money to spend on eating out. A bit like what we are experiencing today but for a different cause.... Last year, and I am referring to the summer of 2020 (mine is a seasonal venue), was a difficult year. In Sardinia there was a lot of controversy about the management of clubs (discos above all) in relation to the pandemic. Sardinia has been targeted everywhere on social media. We were pointed to as the centre of the Italian epidemic, but the real mistake was the lack of controls. Porto Cervo, in particular, has been in the spotlight because Briatore’s Billionaire is there. But in the end, we all paid the price because, after 16 August, there was a general flight of tourists worried about the spread of the virus. You are an establishment that works mostly in summer, so you have seasonal staff. This year the workers could not do the winter season in the mountains (due to the closure of the ski lifts). Many had to re-invent themselves with jobs in a different field. Do you think it will be difficult to recruit specialised staff for next summer? Usually in mid-March we start to study the menus to be proposed and organise all the work: from the staff to the supplies, from the furniture to the mise en place. All this was overturned by Covid last year: we moved from March to May and opened on 1 June. It was also difficult to recruit staff because we couldn’t guarantee seasonal work for eight months, i.e. from March to the end of October. Quite rightly, there are different salaries and assessments to be made compared to a three-month seasonality. Last summer, we had to close on 30 September because we do a lot of work in the September/October period with foreigners, who didn’t show up this year. So last year we had to do without a lot of experienced staff, choosing people with less experience, younger people, people who needed to work. A lot of experienced staff had to change jobs, because having a guarantee of only three months’ salary is unfortunately unfeasible. How do you imagine next summer? Are you developing your own ‘recipe’ for the reopening… I want to think that by the end of March this emergency will have abated so that we can prepare for the season ahead in the best possible way. Last year, despite everything, with a very bad June and a shaky July, we had a strong August and worked well. This year I’ll be starting with the same staff I’ve started with every year: experienced people, staff who have worked with me in the past and who I’ll be bringing back home. But did your family support you in this phase? Absolutely. My family has always been there for me; I’ve had my sister by my side, my wife... but also my mother and father, who have always steered me in the right direction. Fortunately, they have been doing this job for many years. I have this luck. Not everyone has it... Let’s talk about state aid instead. Did you manage to get any relief? We had a 50% drop in turnover. Of course, the state didn’t give us back that 50%, but we got a share which, in my opinion, is always needed. It’s not enough, of course, it can’t make up for the lack of income. We didn’t get any help on the rent, rightly so, a property owner has the same problems as us, they too have incurred expenses and so they have to be paid. We haven’t taken advantage of the redundancy fund because we work with seasonal contracts. MAGAZINE