QUALITALY_136

September/October 2023 IX MAGAZINE says: ‘We implement a cover charge of 3 euro per person; it includes the amuse bouche (a dish eaten at the beginning of the meal, before the starters) and the bread. Then, sometimes we don’t apply it to those who only take one dish, only if you have a full meal. There are those who hide the increases in the price of the dishes, while I indicate the correct price, but I make you understand that the service is the bread I bring you, the fact that you drink in Riedel glasses, the attention we have paid to the choice of mise en place, all those little things that customers are slowly learning to appreciate’. THE COVER CHARGE IS UNWELCOME Of a different opinion is Alessandro Pipero, owner of the Roman Pipero, a Michelin star. “Prices have gone up for everyone, but it’s not that if we pay three times as much for the courgette we charge three times as much for the dish, you have to use intelligence, see where you can cut other expenses that you consider unnecessary. This year there is no oil, there is little wine, so they will be more expensive. I have not increased prices, I am against it, we have to roll up our sleeves and knuckle down. Everyone has a problem but tourism has increased. I’m going against the tide: to keep saying that everything has increased is a cliché, then no one deprives themselves of anything, in Rome the restaurants are all full, the margins will be smaller but that’s life. Because after all, the restaurant is a luxury’. Bread and cover charge? “I consider them a fee for the company but I find it an unwelcome price, I prefer to charge an extra 50 cents for a water and a coffee and at the end of the year I get back the cover charge without including it in the bill, but this is my thought, I won’t criticise those who apply it’. As for the summer controversy of outrageous receipts: ‘they happen in tourist resorts where you only work for three months and the table occupied by people who consume little or nothing is a dead loss, let’s say it is a protection conveyed with very little style. It is true that the service costs money, but it would be a good idea to find other ways of communicating this to the customer’. GIVING VALUE TO WHAT WE DO Cristiano Tomei , chef and owner of L’Imbuto, a Michelin star in Lucca, broadens the discourse. “The cost of living is increasing, not only the restaurant business, which is managed from the point of view of labour costs like a manufacturing business. But it has a greater business risk, raw materials perish and are thrown away, personnel costs are very high compared to the turnover it helps generate. If we have to continue to stay open the increases will be there, I’ve not made increases yet but will have to think about it’. The sector is in crisis. “The reasons have existed for some time, starting with labour costs. The world is changing and the restaurant industry needs to be more aware of the changes, we need to understand that, for example, menus need to be less extensive, wine lists a little more limited. It’s not easy, whoever takes a lunch break for example will have difficulty in raising prices to those who go to eat there every day. But if I have the supplier who increases the raw material costs by 30 per cent, I can’t pretend nothing is happening, restaurants are businesses’. How do you get out of this? “We should make customers a little more aware without terrorising, including in the media, but trying to make the customer aware that good food has a cost, not only for the ingredients but because there are professionals who work daily to transform them and people who greet you with a smile when you enter the restaurant, and these should be recognised as a profession that is an important part of our culture. The customer sometimes does not understand. “But the customer is the most important part of the brigade, the cases of this summer seem to me to be dictated by exasperation, one should work with customers, not generate panic and reflection, explain to them that I have taken away the à la carte menu to offer them the best, always, by catering to them. With a smile’. AT PAGE 36 Journey to the origin of taste by Lorenzo Ricci Donadini Gianluca, biologist, is an adjunct lecturer in Food Technology - Sensory Analysis module at the international degree course in Food Production Management at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza campus. He holds a master’s degree in Oenology and Sommellerie, a specialisation course in Food Hygiene, and a second master’s degree in Food and Wine Communication at the University Vita e Salute San Raffaele in Milan. Gianluca is also the author of 40 scientific publications that have investigated the relationships between the sensory characteristics of food and beverages, consumer liking, and the socio-demographic variables that can influence liking responses. INTRODUCTION A smile escapes Gianluca Donadini’s face when he sees his name being compared to well-known philosophers of the past among the questions. Yet, having had him as a speaker, I can assure you that the comparison does not jibe at all. The aim of this interview is to probe and select the salient features of one of the five senses: taste. Gianluca is a biologist, a poet, a traveller; all necessary qualities when delving into the sphere of the senses. The very nature that surrounds us has always been a source of stimuli: visual, olfactory, tactile, acoustic, taste. Each stimulus works to provide us with the information we need to understand our surroundings and to make decisions on how to act and interact with the world in the hope that our choices are the safest for our survival. Throughout history, human beings have explored places and experienced tastes. We have been mad, hungry, brave. Because the journey to the origin of flavours is a journey full of great individual feats and small constant habits. From the first spices to the fillet with edible gold. A series of foundational and poetic experiences in the act of eating. __________________________________ INTERVIEW FOR DAVID HUME, TASTE IS A SUBJECTIVE FEELING WITH A STANDARD FOUND WITHIN CERTAIN PARAMETERS. FOR JEAN SAVARIN, TASTE IS THE ONE OF OUR SENSES THAT RELATES US TO TASTY SUBSTANCES THROUGH THE SENSATION THEY PRODUCE IN THE ORGAN DESIGNED TO APPRECIATE THEM. WHAT INSTEAD IS TASTE FOR GIANLUCA DONADINI? Tricky question this, as there is no codified definition of taste. One way to define taste is perhaps to decline some of its functions. I prefer to speak of taste, in the plural, as evolutionary adaptations put in place by