Qualitaly_122

APR. MAY. 2021 VII downsize stock supplies in order to minimise waste. SUPPLIES In the state in which we find ourselves, we have to be cautious about everything, especially about shopping, which can no longer be weekly but daily,” says the Chef of Santa Bistrò. “We can’t risk throwing away goods (as has already happened in the past) because we suddenly go from a yellow zone to a red zone. Rationalising stocks also means rethinking menus, to find the right compromise between customer demand and kitchen economy. The menus have been studied at the table, with leaner, less sophisticated dishes than those we saw printed on the old menus. These dishes are almost always prepared with local products, perhaps purchased from local wholesalers rather than from the large- scale retail trade. A behaviour that increasingly resembles that adopted by a particular niche, the supporters of organic and locally-sourced food, which today has an ever-wider audience. Every restaurateur, from Milan to Gallipoli, from Pesaro to Baia Sardinia, has thus studied an ad hoc menu for his restaurant and the right strategies to best face the coming summer which, according to the forecasts from the tourist sector and the common feeling of Italians, is promising, despite the initial perplexity linked to the appearance of some variants of Covid-19. The supply is daily, not weekly as it used to be,” continues chef Grandi. “Milan is a city that works on programming and in this period, you can’t plan as you used to. That’s why I decided to offer tasting menus with 3/4 courses, slightly lowering the average cost per person, a solution that also helps me not to have too much stuff in stock”. SPACE ORGANISATION Working safely no longer frightens anyone. Italian restaurateurs are perfectly familiar living with the measures to be taken and to monitor the virus, including the recent ones reported in the latest Report, approved last March by the Istituto Superiore della Sanità (ISS), the Ministry of Health, the Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco (AIFA) and INAIL, in which the interim indications on the rules for the prevention and control of SARS-CoV-2 infections in terms of variants and anti- COVID-19 vaccination are reported. At the press conference on 16 April, when the Prime Minister announced the reopening, first and foremost, of restaurant activities, he spoke of a calculated risk and a gradual reopening, starting with outdoor venues. This will certainly favour establishments in holiday areas and less so those located in urban centres. Already in Rome there are about 4 thousand restaurants that could not reopen on the set date because they do not have outdoor areas and are unable to use the public spaces, squares, pavements or green areas, indicated in the old decree. The watchword for the whole of 2021 is ‘caution’. And Sardinia was the first Italian region to remind us of this. It was the only one which, since 1 March, has enjoyed the privileges reserved for the white zone. It has reopened everything, allowing its residents to savour the taste of almost normalcy. This was only for three weeks, because the sudden increase in the number of infections forced the Government and the Region to close everything down. However, some have accepted this ‘faux pas’ with philosophy. “Our restaurant has a spectacular view and the atmosphere is surreal,” says Giuseppe Cito, manager of the Punta Baja Restaurant in Baia Sardinia. “A unique position which in the past encouraged us to open the restaurant; this awareness spurred us on to exploit the location’s potential even more, so, taking advantage of the closure period, we created two new areas, both to make it more attractive to our customers and to offer them better service. DEHOR SPACE And if 26 April will remain impressed in the minds of all Italians as the date of rebirth, 1 June will be the date when indoor restaurants can ‘see the light again’, hoping that the vaccination campaign will continue apace. In order to limit the ‘gap’ between outdoor and indoor restaurants as much as possible, the executive - with the last decree (decree-law no. 41 of 2021) - ordered the extension until 31 December 2021 and simplified procedures for the submission of applications for the temporary installation on streets, squares and other open spaces of removable structures to facilitate compliance with the distance measures, such as dehors, platforms, tables and umbrellas. Restaurant and food and beverage service operators will thus be able to work without first having to obtain the permits required under the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code and without applying the 90-day time limit for their removal laid down in the Consolidated Building Code. We have an outdoor summer area and an indoor winter area, and this also benefits us because there are removable panels,” says Andrea Fabiano, owner and manager of Pesaro’s Cozza amara restaurant. “With regard to permits for occupying public land, we initially had some problems, but in the end they were granted. We can now finally work in peace, but we still haven’t been informed by the municipality whether or not we have to pay the tax on the occupation of public land; last year, however, we paid it. We’ll wait. Certainly everything will return to the way it was, but it is clear that the restaurant business has changed radically. It has opened up a new path. The customer will be more careful about the price of the dish, the cleanliness of the place, compliance with safety regulations and always making a reservation before going to eat. AT PAGE 22 COVER STORY Ready to go again! There are entrepreneurs who, in spite of forced closures and tight schedules for their businesses, have never lost heart and are now ready to start again with a lion’s share of courage. Here’s a story of courage and vision by Maria Elena Dipace ‘That which does not kill me, makes me stronger! No, this is not a popular saying, but a phrase uttered by the great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche