Whether it is luxury, starred or under the house, the restaurant is the experience of conviviality par excellence. Gathered around a restaurant’s table, we experience (or witness) moments so memorable that deserved to be celebrated in front of a dish that we would never have been able to cook on our own or drinking a glass of wine that we would hardly have found at the supermarket. This is the restaurant: the place that welcomes us when we want something more. But – let’s face it – even the one where we run when we don’t want to sauté in the stove.
If there is a lesson that the COVID-19 emergency thought us, it is that not all restaurants have had the same opportunities. If on one side there were those who were able to continue working thanks to delivery, there are those who, on the other hand, had to close without any other possibility, because their dishes were not simply food to be delivered to the customer, but a story within a unique atmosphere.
The Italians want to take again their place at the table. The data for June 2021 tell us that compared to the 2020 trend, the result is decidedly positive, with Liguria (48%), Umbria (47%) and Tuscany (45%) conquering the podium of the regions where the largest openings took place. On the contrary, Sicily (30%), Sardinia (30%) and Calabria (27%) find themselves in the last places (RepUP data).
The reopening however, from north to south is a new challenge for everyone, it is the return that taste like normality, made up of waiters wandering around the tables, of menus to browse (or better to view digitally), of lighted candles as soon as we take our seats. With the reopening, the concept of hospitality is no longer the simple gesture of recognizing the regular customer or knowing how to make the new one feel at ease. It represents an assumption of responsibility in the choice of what we decide to offer to the customer, who is more and more rightly demanding in terms of guaranteed healthiness of food, showing a preference for products that come from a nearby territory (km 0 or almost), which have been picked by hands that have a story to tell. All elements which are part of that sustainable economy that respects the cycles of nature, which we have talked about so much. Italian restaurateurs and all those who choose Made in Italy, have an advantage over competitors from other countries. Foreign drinks and foods are six times more dangerous than the Italians one. The latter in fact, have only 0.9% of irregular chemical residues, compared to the EU average of 1.3%. Sales of pesticides in our country have dropped by 32%, data that emerge from the latest Efsa report and which underline the fundamental importance for Italy, holder of the record of greener agriculture in Europe, to bring the report forward to 2021 on the levels of pesticides in imported products envisaged by the agreement on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), so that even foreign products respect a path of quality and economic, environmental and social sustainability.
For ITA0039 the transparency of information, as well as respect for nature within a sustainable economy, are necessary steps to follow if you want to ride the green wave that is engulfing the entire agri-food chain. A goal that’s possible thanks also to the certification of ITA0039 | 100% Italian Taste and its Network which is committed every day to promote and defend the true “Italianness” at the table, which only our food and our restaurants can give to those who decide to choose them.
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