AUTHENTIC INGREDIENTS, ITALIAN WINE, TRADITIONAL RECIPES
Gianni Favro (https://giannibkk.com/) just thirty years ago created the most emblematic Italian Restaurant in Bangkok (Thailand). He has always kept it at successful levels without ever giving in to his credo of authenticity, quality, and class. Gianni, perhaps one of the most iconic Italian chef-patrons in the world, speaks of the future with the same enthusiasm, passion, and expertise as when he began his Thai adventure. (full version in the newsletter here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/authentic-ingredients-italian-wine-traditional-recipes-scarpato-b8xmf)
"Italian restaurants that have kept pace with the times and managed to "modernize" to meet current market demands will thrive. Those who have maintained a more subdued identity or less accentuated a defined and captivating concept will suffer greatly”.
"Customers … in an Italian restaurant look for a safe haven, a place where they can eat and feel at home. Because, let's face it, a nice dinner in an excellent Italian restaurant, with a bottle of wine and a few well-prepared and served classic Italian dishes, is an unparalleled pleasure… And I'm talking of that 'feeling of home' that true Italian restaurateurs and our culture are known for".
“In the future, I believe Italian restaurants will always exist, but with a tendency toward being simpler, still elegant, but more focused on respecting tradition, without the excessive gastronomical excesses that have had their day”.
“Authentic ingredients, Italian wine, traditional recipes are fundamental, I would say. If these three foundations aren't present in an Italian restaurant, let's be clear: it IS NOT AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT”.
“Menus based exclusively a single Italian region? It's a trend that is disappearing or diminishing. It could work if it also offers dishes from classic Italian cuisine, because more than half of foreign diners abroad seek Piedmontese or Roman dishes and wines, even in a Tuscan restaurant.
“TV celebrity chefs have reached their peak of popularity, and now customers are returning to real food. I don't want a restaurant that serves 250 grams of pasta per portion, but one that serves dishes in an exemplary manner, where you pay for quality and the rest of the setting, not for dreams and emotions and a thousand abstract blah blah blahs that can't be "eaten."
“Qualified chefs exist, and the level is high if you know where to look. Times though are changing, and so are the new generations, they want to do less, work less, and do other things. Managing a kitchen team in an Italian restaurant in Bangkok has perhaps become more difficult now, but for me it remains one of the most beautiful and rewarding things one can do”.