Qualitaly

June July 2015

VIII

At page 24

Finger food, in the

Italian though!

Cocktails, refreshments, buffet,

theme nights, graduation parties,

business meetings, every opportunity

is an excuse for snacking: a well-

established trend that appetizers.

And little fry snacks reign supreme

It’s a way to consume food in a

convivial, informal and fast that, with

the success of the happy hour, it was

gradually consolidated and even a little

‘changed substantially reconnecting to

the flavors of our traditional Italian and

regional.

It will be the desire of the consumer to

return to the good local tastes, will tend

to prefer specialty “kilometer short”,

will be the wide variety of products and

recipes that Italian tradition offers to

professionals, the fact is that the finger

foods Italian matrix collects more and

more acceptance among consumers and

food companies are ready to meet this

need with an amplitude of proposals

truly remarkable, that at the same

time guarantee a sure result, rapid

implementation and control of food cost.

FROM THE “ALMOST READY” TO THE

“READY FOOD”. Edoardo Mainardi -

founder and director of Mainardi Food,

company partner CIC and active on the

territory of Friuli - confirms this: “To

make finger food who has specialized

personnel and equipped kitchens will

require semi-finished products for the

production of sweet or savory snacks,

such as the shortbread savory and sweet

or eggshells Natural by Ice Wer.

But for a proposal finger food suitable

to local less structured it is possible

to aim for quality of ready products,

which brilliantly solve the needs of

the bar, banquet facilities as well as

the restaurant owner. It must be said

that in our country the culture of ham

is very rooted (we are in the area of

San Daniele) so usually in every buffet

never fails a ham in the grip, cut at the

moment, we will sell a lot. As well as

using the ham in bread crustes, which

is typical of Trieste. Our customers is

especially popular also another cool

product that we distribute, the buffalo

mozzarella from 5 kg, very scenic.

Next to these three pillars, the fried is

always required: the pieces of battered

cod, Mozzarella, vegetables breaded or

battered are always required, and are

now a classic.”

REFERENCES INCREASES. The “pulse”

of the market, seen from the point of

view of the manufacturer is given by

Salvatore Varriale from Rispo, modern

company that in addition to products

for breakfast, mainly produces a rich

variety of savory dishes, frozen.

“The relevance of our commercial

reality is that of having to meet

the need for types of customers

increasingly varied. We have to think

about the needs of restaurants, but

also the bar, banquets etc. Up to a bit

‘of time ago the clientele is reclined

on a limited number of references, but

today there is a market that demands

more and more new things and tasty.

In this we are greatly helped by the

technology: there were once available

only raw and frozen products to be

fried or leavened, which were raw and

cooked in the oven. Today, however,

we have the products ready oven pre-

fried, only to be regenerated in an oven

or in a deep fryer, depending on the

equipment and the ability to handle

food or less of each operator; an aspect

that allows any bar to offer tempting

tastes like the flowers or the fried cod

with no problem. The most popular are

the innovative, versatile, and safe in

terms of food products. We noticed that

our Gragnano Paccheri (in two versions:

tomato, mozzarella and basil or ricotta

and salmon), breaded and pre-fried. A

product that is loved across the board to

the manager of the bar rather than the

restaurant owner, as well as a novelty

are the polentine assorted vegetarian

(with red onions from Tropea, with tops

of turnips, with caponata, slightly spicy,

etc.), a light, vegetarian meal, which

also stimulates the desire to consume

more drinks. Those are all products

frozen individually, so you can only use

the necessary amount, in packages that

start at 500 g to 2 kg.”

More to come: Varriale emphasizes an

important customer requirements in

terms of size products: “There is an

interesting request for the assorted

flavors of appetizers and especially

ask us really small sizes; so we made

a small fry Italian (arancina, croquette

potatoes, omelette spaghetti, meatball

eggplant, delicious cheeses) to 12 g, in

5 different varieties of product that we

offer in a pack of pounds, which is bout

half of the classic mignon 25 grams.”

THE ITALIAN TRADITION’S SNACKS

are the specialty of Gela, Ascoli Piceno

manufacturer that offers products in

ready oven, which can be prepared

with a rapid shift in the fryer, alongside

others to be regenerated in the

microwave or in the oven, a growing

demand especially in world bar. The

company specializes in products such

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