QUALITALY 138

Januar y/Februar y 2024 II MAGAZINE we cannot allow this to compromise the quality of the products we provide to our customers. Quality has always been our strength and must remain at the core of our activities. We have to strike a balance between managing costs and maintaining our quality standards. Our success depends on our ability to efficiently and smoothly manage the entire supply chain, from production to final delivery to restaurants. We have to optimise our processes, invest in innovative technologies and strengthen our partnerships with trusted suppliers in order to ensure a punctual and flawless delivery. Additionally, we must be proactive in contract negotiations with our suppliers in order to mitigate the effects of inflation. Collaboration and transparency will be essential in this process. We must be open to dialogue with our partners to find creative solutions that allow us to contain costs without compromising the quality of our products. Finally, we must ensure a collective commitment and strong leadership. As a consortium, we have proven our resilience and adaptability in the past, and I am confident that we will be able to meet this challenge also. We will continue to focus on quality, logistical efficiency and collaboration with our partners to ensure our future success. Thank you for your continued commitment and dedication. AT PAGE 12 FOCUS ON The price is served THERE ARE VARIOUS, AND NECESSARY, STRATEGIES TO APPEASE A CUSTOMER IN (ECONOMIC) CRISES AND KEEP COSTS AT BAY. WE DRAW INSPIRATION FROM STEPS TAKEN BY SOME RESTAURATEURS by Anna Muzio Lately it is often the case that one goes to a fine dining restaurant, perhaps a Michelin-starred restaurant or one with a celebrity chef and finds it with more empty tables than occupied. Even when the tables can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And even on important evenings, such as Saturdays. The restaurant industry, after years of increased turnover, has come to a screeching halt recently. Changes in the labour market (between insecurity and smart working) have presented the bill. The recovery, which existed because people were by then used to eating out - and often - finally collided with the recession. It should also be considered that salaries in Italy over the last 30 years have increased by an average of 1% (against an OECD countries average of 32.5%, says Inapp - National Institute for Public Policy Analysis). There is no getting around it: today, the issue for customers wishing to eat out is: how much will I end up paying? In short, it’s now a question of price. Which should be limited, for the more frequent diners, and certainly not skyrocket for those who aspire to haute cuisine. The cover charge presented in the receipt, which the customer has always resented, the wine pairing almost more expensive than the tasting menu, or the bottles starting at 50 euros and more, drive away a middle class that has begun to weigh up and carefully select where and when (and how much) to go out. Hence the dining rooms that are too often empty, or almost. The shrewdest restaurateurs have therefore devised strategies to meet their customers’ needs, despite the well-known difficulties (increase in ingredient and high labour costs, first and foremost). Let’s have a look at them. UNITY MAKES PROMOTION Bringing haute cuisine closer to more people with dedicated menus at a fixed price: this is the idea behind Gourmantico, the culinary festival of the newly-formed Insieme Association that brings together 21 fine dining restaurants (including well- known names such as Enrico Bartolini, Giancarlo Morelli and Stefano Masanti) in three Lombardy provinces. From 20 January to 30 April, the dedicated menus, which can be viewed on the website, have at least four courses and are all offered at 75 euro including wine, cover charge and service. A way of promoting the territory and its cuisine that is widely used abroad in culinary festivals, from Valencia to Vancouver but less so in Italy, because it envisages the jump from competing to allying on the territory. “Unity is strength and being together allows everyone to grow. Over and above competition comes collaboration,’ said Stefano Masanti of Cantinone di Madesimo (SO). FIXED PRICES, WITH CHOICE Fixed prices are a path that often involves more or less rigid and set tasting menus. So we were intrigued by the choice of Anna Ghisolfi, a creative chef who has a beautiful restaurant in Tortona with an open kitchen in a deconsecrated church. The menu in her case is divided into ‘blocks’, each with its own price: 25 for starters and first course, 30 for main course and 20 euro for dessert. With three or four options from which the customer can move around. Those who want everything will spend 95 euros, but there is also room for less hearty appetites and smaller wallets. An idea to copy? GETTING THE CUSTOMER TO RETURN Low prices and a menu that changes every month: this is the strategy chosen by Sentaku Izakaya, a restaurant recently opened in the centre of Bologna. A sort of ‘Japanese-style tapas bar’ (this would be, oversimplifying, Izakaya) where you can eat for two, choosing from various menus (meat, fish or vegetable) for 30 euro, including a beer. The two most ‘robust’ ‘experiences’ involve seven dishes to be shared between two people, at EUR 40 and EUR 35. Objective: to get the customer to come back. All this despite the fact that most of the ingredients come from Japan, to give an authentic as possible experience. “It’s true, with imports we have slightly higher costs but I prefer to keep the margins a little lower to let the customer experience the true taste of the dish’s country of origin. For me this is the basis of everything, keeping the prices affordable so that people come back,” says Claudio Alessandro Musiani, also patron of Sentaku Ramen Bar and Nasty Burger Bar. INCREASING IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD BUSINESS What if the secret was simply to lower prices, and by a lot? Tout court? The Canadian magazine CBC reminds us: during a severe recession back in 1982, restaurants in Calgary, a popular tourist resort, decided to cut the prices of their