Qualitaly_111

JUN. JUL. 2019 IX AT PAGE 20 COVER STORY Before the cooking... there is the ingredient This is the slogan of the Alfione di Parma, a young company that grows and offers a winning format: gastronomy and catering. Here medium-high quality and affordable prices go hand in hand while maintaining a good relationship with management control. By Riccardo Sada His passion for cooking was born within the walls of his home where his mother and grandmother, as good people from Emilia Romagna, raised him with the typical dishes of his native land. In his hometown of Parma, Graziano Racchelli had the honour of personally cooking for two Presidents of the Republic on an official visit. Currently, he expertly and diligently conveys the cuisine of the Alfione di Parma, a winning format that he has shared since the beginning and that he particularly loves. But who is behind the idea of this ‘sui generis’ restaurant? Who had the idea of combining a delicatessen counter with traditional cuisine? “The project was born together with the entrepreneurs with whom I shared the idea from the beginning - reveals Racchelli - We wanted to start from a resource: a historic shop that has existed for over 50 years and that testifies and represents the origins. It is no coincidence that we kept the entrance from the charcuterie, the beginning of the journey that evolved and developed to become the restaurant.” Was it all born gradually and by instinct or with a format planned at the table? By instinct, or rather, fruit of the passion for this profession. Then, as for all entrepreneurial activities, a feasibility study and consequent business plan followed. Let’s comment on your claim “Before the cooking... there is the ingredient”. The project started in 2015 thinking of a place that had appeal in a location like Parma. To imagine starting from the products of the territory to the restaurant, we arrived in Alfione. In the menu of the restaurant we propose the products of our selection of delicatessen. We considered strategic some elements: proximity to the city centre without traffic restrictions, number of hotels nearby, headquarters of the Efsa (also as a symbolic value) and location that lent itself exactly to the realization of the project. The clientele is now very varied, consisting mainly of businessmen, groups of friends and many families. How long have you been in the catering sector? If I also consider the years I spent as a student at the Hotelier Institute in Salsomaggiore Terme, a city in which during the summer holiday months I began to work in the kitchens of several local restaurants, since then 44 years have passed. Of these, 18 as chef patron of my restaurant that I had to reluctantly cease due to termination of the lease. How many of you are in the kitchen? And in the restaurant? There are four of us in the kitchen, as well as in the restaurant where there is also the director and patron, Massimo Alfieri and Elio Greci, two friends, who later became owners. As a chef, I contributed to the teamwork by bringing my skills. How did you set up the brigade? To form the brigade, I made a long selection: some candidates were suggested to me by colleagues, others were identified at hotelier institutes. It was a complex process to identify the ‘team’ with the right elements, which means not only having the professional skills but also the human ones. In a kitchen you stay together for several hours a day. Sometimes, more than you spend with your family, you work side by side in confined spaces. Empathy and complicity are needed: each person’s work is bound by a red thread and it is mutual trust that keeps it together. For this reason, I love having a friendly relationship with collaborators, listening to them often and offering help in case of difficulty. Can new working techniques still be developed in the kitchen? That’s very likely. The technology is constantly evolving and also considers the health of those who work in the kitchen. Things have improved a lot since the beginning of my career and the working environment has become more liveable thanks to new techniques. Moreover, innovations both in cooking and in storage, allow to optimize purchases and reduce working time with the result of having raw materials, or semi- prepared, available at all times but, above all, with the organoleptic properties unchanged. Nowadays, the range of technological proposals for processing in the kitchen is