QUALITALY_132

December/Januar y 2023 I MAGAZINE AT PAGE 1 Survival instinct will save us A few days ago I was in a magical place, Civita di Bagnoregio, near Viterbo (Lazio) on the border between Umbria and Tuscany. As I walked through this village situated on the summit of a tuf f clif f, I was ‘struck ’ by a beautiful image. A marvellous tree whose roots tried to fix themselves between a narrow strip of land and the tufa rock; par t of them then went to embrace the very trunk of the tree, majestically conveying the force of nature. Well, this image made me think about how impor tant the survival instinct is. Nature, living beings, man himself... every day we fight for life. And it is from this image that I want to star t telling the story of this new issue of Qualitaly. This is the first file of 2023 and is probably the right time to make plans, pursue new ideas and finally catch our breath af ter three years of great hardship for our category, which has shown a strong survival instinct. The figures are on our side: the sector closed 2022 with a substantially positive balance sheet and 17% growth compared to the same period of the year (repor t on page 12). And so now is the time to invest in the formulas most in demand by consumers; such as, for example, wine bars with a kitchen (pg. 16), an increasingly consolidated presence loved by gourmets who, in addition to quality, look for welcoming venues, wonderful to discover and experience; or on ingredients, such as vegetable proteins, increasingly present on the menus of many restaurants (feature on pg. 38). But for steak lovers, here are increasingly sought-af ter proposals with breeds of meat that have par ticularly valuable characteristics such as Wagyu from Japan or Limousine from France (page 32). Finally, don’t miss the wonderful interview with chef Andrea Fugnanesi who, not yet 30 years old (he was born in 1995), has already been called upon to take on a major challenge: that of guiding the kitchen of the Hotel Concordia in Livigno through a major renovation process. Happy reading! By Lorenzo Morelli AT PAGE 3 The power of ideas Il Marca was the first participation at a trade fair for our Cooperative in a long time, and I must say that in almost 30 years this one, among all those I have experienced, first as a member and then as a director, totally stood out from those previously. An always packed stand, the passionate presence of our members, the interest, consideration and desire to be part of our project from so many suppliers, and to crown it all the award for best packaging of the entire exhibition, confirmed to me that our ‘Vision’ is the right one and that the power of ideas triggers fantastic reactions. I can say with great pride that the mood and emotions we take away from Il Marca are those of a parent who, with much apprehension, has dreamt of and conceived a child, and now sees him start walking better and quicker than any most optimistic forecast. The work still to be done is undoubtedly long and tiring, but I can assure you that seeing our members passionately participate in the development of our brand and incite us to go even faster, mitigates any fatigue. Their repeating ‘I only want DEC/JAN 2023 MAGAZINE Traduzione a cura di Christopher Farley