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be around 7-8 euro - continues Fabbi -.
Rooms are designed for customers with
needs of a fast catering service, offer a
dining experience of a good standard
in a relaxed setting, with a proposal
for a broad and renewed frequently,
following the seasonal, able to satisfy
even the gourmet. All dishes are made
with fresh ingredients and cooked at the
time, also to avoid wastage. We try to
combine sustainability and accessibility,
or quality at low cost thanks to research
and innovation. We will try to translate
this commitment through workshops
on the premises of Expo on the theme:
Living the food, solid roots to nourish
the future.”
CIR food will involve about 500 people
at the Expo project, including 400 new
hires, 80% already in training.
The other major player in the site is
Eataly, present with a pavilion of 20
restaurants, each dedicated to a different
Italian region. Peck will address the
high-end restaurant in the Italian
Pavilion. While, in the controversy,
McDonalds will have a pavilion designed
to illustrate “the agricultural sectors of
the Italian partner global brand.”
MILAN AND SURROUNDING. According
to Gfk 60% of Italian visitors will pass at
least one night away from home and it is
clear that Milan can not absorb them all,
then you will create a network between
the cities of northern Italy, which will
address the hospitality and catering
evening of great art Expo tourists. Four
out of ten Italians over the site visit the
city. For foreigners, Milan is already an
attractive destination in itself, which
has the values of art, elegance, good
living and good food that Italians do not
always confer on it. Says Alfredo Zini,
member of the National Fipe and owner
of restaurant Al Tronco in Milan: “In the
city catering offer is widening, there are
many entrepreneurs who are aiming
investing in large facilities to meet the
needs of Chinese tourists , Indians,
Arabs coming. Increase the facilities
that offer cooking vegan, kosher, halal,
even temporary restaurant, very large
structures that will open for the six
months of exposure to meet specific
needs, diet or religious convictions. For
us restaurateurs is an opportunity too
important not to enhance our products
and flavors: Expo makes sense if it
becomes a fly, a starting point for the
resumption. Avoiding the old custom
Italic plucking the stranger so that
then does not come back more”, but
putting in a perspective of service and
hospitality.
In this sense goes the Pact for Expo bars
and restaurants in Milan sponsored by
the city of Milan and the Chamber of
Commerce (see box). Do not miss the
starry lined with restaurants furniture
new or brand new, in-the-range version
or “gourmet low cost”, by Berton Cracco
with his sawmill.
ITALIAN CUISINE REVISITED. How
we answer the needs of these new
customers? “One interpretation may be
to propose the recipes of the Italian
tradition (the demand and expect it so
many foreigners coming), using local
products, typical, but - says Zini - with
an eye to the needs of all. For example,
those who do not eat pork for religious
reasons must have valid alternatives
for the starter. But even those who
are subject to intolerance to lactose or
gluten. The hardest thing is, however,
communicate to the consumer in his
own language through the menu,
indicating the composition of the recipes
and the presence of any problematic
foods. A sore point is precisely the
shortage of employees who speak
foreign languages. Then there is the
issue of communication: there are
lists of restaurants in the region but to
stand out you need to communicate
via the web first, its specificity, its own
history, emphasize that it is equipped
to accommodate such children or dogs.
Give short information as possible in
the main languages which are English,
Russian and Chinese. The presence
of free wi-fi, essential for foreigners,
must be reported since the showcase.
You may also decide to invest in some
countries in particular, such as China.
But it is a job that must be built over
time.”
One thing is certain; said the president
of the chamber of commerce Milan
Sangalli “the image that will leave
visitors is our best investment in the
future of Milan and the country.”
The expectations are there, and they
are many: innovation, sustainability,
creativity, and life. If even the operators
of hospitality will not accept them,
a great opportunity may turn into a
painful boomerang effect.
The risk of a two-speed Milan
The proposal of the dining exhibition
is gargantuan, and (for the first time
in an Expo) lasts until evening. Given
the presence of on-site events (Cirque
du Soleil for example every evening
from May to late August), low-cost
transport (metro) and access to euro 5
after 19, many visitors (and Milan) could
decide dine at the site of Expo. The
city runs the risk instead of having two
or three speeds: the center of Piazza
Duomo, Brera, Garibaldi and Navigli
crowded and full of events and places of
attraction (to name a few Eataly Emerald,
the Market of the Cathedral of Autogrill,
the customs house west of Porta Venezia
showcase the cultural trail and tasting
the excellence of food products and
herbal Confcommercio).
The suburbs instead threatened with
abandonment. But something is already
planned: the music festival organized in
the area of 12 thousand square meters
of the General Markets for example, that
will combine music and street food with
excellent products markets in Milan.
But they are already 17 thousand events
recorded in the urban Milanese, found at
www.fuoriexpomilano.it and organized
by over 2,000 local businesses.
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