Qualitaly_122

APR. MAY. 2021 VI MAGAZINE the debut on 15 June, showing the two versions of the certificate, the digital one for smartphones and the paper one, the same everywhere in the EU and “covered by personal data regulations”. The document contains a QR code with the type of vaccine received but, it should be stressed, it will not be mandatory to move. For those without it, there will be antigenic swabs to be taken just before departure or at airports. These could also be recorded on the certificate. The inclusion of serological tests no older than six months that show the presence of antibodies is being studied. ______________________________ BOX In search of lost security, but not only: how the customer changes What will customers want when they come back through the door after a year of pandemic? First and foremost safety, open spaces, but also health awareness, transparency on hygiene - which can be “facilitated” by easily washable and touchless surfaces and machinery or hi-tech antibacterial materials - and on ingredients, and renewed menus. Masks - perhaps customised - and gloves are a piece of equipment that, according to research carried out in the USA before the reopening by restaurateur Philipp Sitter and reported by QSR Magazine, for over 15% of customers should become part of the waiters’ “uniform” on a permanent basis, while six out of ten customers request disposable menus. If temperature measurement at the entrance is considered important, measures such as table spacing, hand sanitisation, waiting outside the restaurant, compulsory booking and a seat at the bar are even more convincing. People will still look for take-away, but the digital experience will also bring the demand for flexibility and choice to the “physical”. But the most essential ingredient will be hospitality and human warmth. According to a survey carried out by Scuola Tessieri on 70 restaurateurs and food critics, the prerequisites for a new start, which is expected to be “overbearing and immediate”, are: less improvisation and more study, no to grandmother’s fake cuisine and yes to quality artisan restaurants that focus on the territory, the freshness of the ingredients and the welcome. Rather than lengthy menus, a few proposals made to perfection. Expensive and unjustified bills will not be tolerated and the demand for delivery and take-away will continue. ______________________________ AT PAGE 18 IN DEPTH A breath of optimism We have finally reached the longed- for moment of restart. How have restaurateurs prepared themselves and how will the organisation of work, procurement, space management and personnel change? by Alessandro Vergallo “We cannot expect things to change if we keep doing the same things. The crisis is the greatest blessing for people and nations, because the crisis brings progress. Creativity comes from anxiety as the day comes from the dark night. E ‘in the crisis that is inventiveness, discoveries and great strategies. Who overcomes crisis overcomes himself without being ‘passed’. Who gives the crisis its failures and difficulties, violent his own talent and gives more value to the solutions to the problems.” This is what Albert Einstein wrote ninety years ago in The World as I See It. A thought that is always current, in step with the times, and today applied by most of our restaurateurs, who have survived the first lockdown from Covid-19, an emergency that continues to put them to the test even though more than a year has passed since it began. Finally, on 16 April, the ‘Italian kitchen troops’ were able to hear from the Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, at a press conference, what they had hoped to hear from the former head of the government, Giuseppe Conte, two months ago. “Time to reopen!” A decision that, of ‘prudent optimism and confidence’, taken in the control room, brought forward to 26 April the introduction of the yellow zone, thanks to the downturn in the curve of contagions that has thus allowed the gradual reopening of restaurants, starting with those that have outdoor spaces. The resumption was delayed, especially for seasonal workers who usually start the season in March. All in all, however, the months of closure have given them the opportunity to reschedule their activities. I worked almost all winter to be ready for my usual opening on 1 March,” says Franco Tornese, Chef and Patron of Ristorante Gaio in Gallipoli, “but it’s all right. It’s true that I lost the Easter and Easter Monday takings, but now I can finally work, comforted by the news that is circulating and which announces that Puglia could be one of the destinations that could be taken by storm by tourists, as happened last summer. MANAGING RESOURCES The dates that have followed one another in recent months heralding the restart of the sector, and the subsequent denials, have created quite a few problems for entrepreneurs and food workers, one of the many, not negligible, being the recruitment and management of human resources. Figures such as chefs, waiters, dishwashers... who for years have been an integral part of this or that restaurant, have given up on their usual employers, recycling themselves in other sectors. The climate of uncertainty in recent months,” says Stefano Grandi, Executive Chef and owner of Il Santa - Bistrò Moderno, located in one of the rooms on the ground floor of Palazzo Regione Lombardia in Milan, “has forced me - for various reasons - to give up the restaurant’s historic team, so my partner and I have decided that until this still somewhat uncertain moment ends, I will be in the kitchen with my assistant and in the dining room with him and a waiter. And the gentlemen of food, those who survived the death of the first lockdown, despite everything, continue to hope for a better future. Fearful, yes, but not afraid. They are not giving up. They are betting everything on their potential and their professionalism. However, they keep their feet on the ground, aware that the situation could change at any moment, as it has already happened, if the infection index were to rise again. A doubt still exists, at least until the country achieves herd immunity. A condition that has forced kitchen entrepreneurs to reschedule and