QUALITALY_129

June/Jul y 202 2 VII MAGAZINE they do a dish like you do and they come and embrace you it’s priceless. You have to be there to feel certain emotions. It takes patience, it’s tiring but they give you so much back. COOKING AS THERAPY... A person with Down syndrome must remain constantly active, otherwise he or she will shut down. I’ll give you an example: a girl came to me, she didn’t speak, she was practically motionless, I gave her things to do and day after day she became more and more involved, she started to interact with the other kids, now she sings in the kitchen. Now she makes all the dry baked cakes and potatoes. In four months the change has been remarkable. It is a great little success. ________________________________ BOX What is ETICO Hotel Basic ingredients prepared or produced by communities and social cooperatives, which help socially disadvantaged people to integrate through agriculture and trade. But also 15 ‘interns’ with both physical and intellectual or sensory handicaps, mostly suffering from Down’s syndrome or autism, but not only them: Etico Food is the catering ‘rib’ of the Ethical Hotel in Rome. B-Corp certified, the hotel in an early 20th century villa, a stone’s throw from Piazza del Popolo, was set up by Antonio Pelosi , a Roman engineer from a historic family of hoteliers and, as he describes himself, “ex- comatose” as a result of an accident. Which changed his perspective. www.eticofood.it __________________________________ IT WAS A CHOICE OF LOVE, IN THE END I EARN LESS BUT I AM HAPPIER, IT’S OK. __________________________________ RECIPE Roasted sea bass fillet on apple and fennel puree Ingredients (per portion) Ingredients: 100 g Sea bass fillet 100 g Red apple 100 g Fennel Procedure: Cut 5 apple slices with the peel and with a mandoline 2 mm thick: place on a baking tray on baking paper in a static oven at 160 degrees for 15 minutes. The chips are ready when they are crispy and golden brown. Dice the remaining apple without the peel and add it to half a fennel, which has also been cut into cubes. Place it in a steel saucepan with oil and salt on a low heat for 15 minutes, add a little water to dilute it. When it is cooked to perfection, blend it with an immersion blender. Cut the sea bass fillet in half and grill it while keeping the skin crispy. In a deep plate pour the fennel and apple puree, lay the sea bass fillets with the skin side up, arrange the apple chips around them, add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and serve. __________________________________ AT PAGE 32 YOU KNOW THERE IS AAA Waiter wanted HE IS ONE OF THE MOST SOUGHT-AF- TER FIGURES OF THE MOMENT, BUT WORKING THE DINING AREA IS CONSIDERED UNATTRACTIVE. IS CITIZENSHIP INCOME TO BLAME? ONLY PARTLY. THE REASONS ARE MANY AND DEEP. SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM REQUIRE ACTION ON THE PART OF SCHOOLS, INSTITUTIONS AND NOT LEAST EMPLOYERS by Elena Consonni Even more difficult to find than the Holy Grail, waiters are the most sought after this summer season. It seems impossible, to hear many chefs and restaurateurs even of great renown, to find waiting staff, to the point that many are reducing their opening hours or delaying the opening of new venues. But is this really the case? According to the Osservatorio Professioni Estive 2022 (Summer Professions Observatory 2022) by InfoJobs, an online job search platform, in the Tourism and Catering category from April to mid-June there were 5,500 adverts; catering alone made up 4,000. The most in-demand profession is that of waiter, followed by kitchen assistant and cook. This is confirmed by Silvio Moretti , director of FIPE’s Trade Union Relations, Social Security and Training Area: ‘The sector is short of around 90,000 workers, more than a third of whom are waiters. The figure of the waiter is more difficult to find than that of the cook. In hotel schools, only 30 per cent choose the service course, but there is no shortage of career opportunities: one can become a maître’. There are several reasons for this situation. According to Moretti, the first is related to the uncertainty in the sector following the