Qualitaly_110

APR. MAY. 2019 X A very precise idea that must always be linked to the best way of conveying the dish to the customer: “Communication in the dining room is essential, you need to know which are the correct terms. Talking about Slow Food principals, PDO, a waiter must know the differences. One thing to count is whether you’re serving a Carmagnola rabbit or crusco pepper. So, how to communicate food correctly is fundamental, sometimes you need dialectics, in others, maybe it is more important to focus on the sensory experience.” This is because, in any case, Berti underlines: “The restaurant translates the work of the cook - who defends the performance - but my old master always said “the technique is not digestible”.” Who does this job must know how to read a little into the psychology of the customer: “There is the customer who comes to take a picture of the dish, who is a food lover, others instead have food intolerances and you have to interpret them, help them in choosing. We at Alma teach just that,” - says the director - “the reading, the construction of the dish, respect for the ingredients that make up the menus, how to interpret the recipes. The execution is only the final part.” The real difference, which establishes a contact between customer and restaurateur, is always: “how much you can speak about the experience of the dish.” But what is the recipe to be successful today? The chef has no doubt: “Enhancing classicism”, often you invent dishes that do not exist, and so: “That must be done by professionals. You need to have a good knowledge of tradition, for example the seasonality of a product, or why meat sauce is called that and also because I “sell” it with tagliatelle and not with a normal pasta,” you need to exalt the classic with knowledge: “Then what I create is no longer questionable, if I know the regions, the history, the ingredient (PDO products).” In Alma: “We teach cooks what the waiter should know and vice versa, which is the best wine to pair with a dish. The “classic” allows you to be modern, for example reinterpreting a meat sauce, removing the tomato, but then knowing that you have to change the type of meat!” A restaurant must have a defined nucleus, in everything: “A place that wants to be a winner must also take care of the desserts” – usually, says Berti, it is the last resort - “often you fail on the dessert, but it is precisely this what remains for everyone. It has to be said that not everyone can afford their own pastry chef, well you can ask a consultant who constructs the dessert menu, but always based on the identity of your restaurant.” PAOLA IMPARATO, EXPERT IN RESTAURANT REVENUE MANAGEMENT “In order to succeed in catering today, one must know one’s own corporate identity”, and not wait until the clients define it, Paola Imparato, a consultant and catering expert ( www.ppuntoimparato.it ) , is convinced of this: “We need to talk about the company’s positioning, but also about its ability to interpret the reasons for the client’s choice, starting from their tastes, which vary according to the moment.” There are people who, during the same day: “They can decide to go to McDonald’s and then the same evening go out with their partner in a high-end restaurant.” You have to understand then that in every restaurant you have an experience of three types, summarizes the consultant: “1) the pre-experience , when the customer decides to go to the restaurant; 2) the in experience or when you are at the restaurant and 3) the post experience , based on the exchange of views, increasingly also through social media. Often the restaurateur does not know all three phases. However, taking care of the first one could solve the identity of the restaurant, such as the product we are selling and to whom.” When he holds his training courses (some viewable on the channel www.youtube.com/channel/ UC_Bjtie0sa4y-aoZSOglJXw) he notices that: “Many restaurateurs are unaware,” the consultant sees a series of weaknesses: “Often there is no connection between the company areas, or they are not defined, there is an administrative area, for example, but not that of management control; and marketing, if there is, is done only at the phase of in experience , almost never on pre or even less on post . It has now become clear that we need an area of quality. The company’s organization must be translated, every restaurant must keep a common thread in everything it does, that is, there must be a corporate identity.” Finally: “In the kitchen area, giving much prestige to the chef, one of the mainstays of the organization, but the dining area today has the same importance.” It is no coincidence that the great chef Gualtiero Marchesi believed that the importance in a restaurant was given, recalls Imparato: “60% to the dining area and 40% to the kitchen.” Many, on the other hand, rely on reviews: “TripAdvisor is fundamental”, the consultant admits that the web ranking is important. “Often, potential customers are influenced. Perhaps it would be worth regulating the system by forcing the reviewer to load the image of the receipt, so as to link the satisfaction / dissatisfaction of the customer to the experience had, even based on expectations.” All aspects of the RRM-Restaurant Revenue Management of which Imparato is an expert, and which consists in short: “In attracting the right customer at the right price at the right time - more than magic formula but, according to the expert, possible - When you lower the price of a product, for example, you make precise analysis of the target we serve or intend to serve, you evaluate what are the times when customers can be better distributed based on price changes, sensing what the MAGAZINE