The controversy over the statements made by Deputy Minister Castelli on TG2 continues. To the deputy minister who, speaking of the economic crisis due to the Coronavirus, had declared "If people no longer go to restaurants, we must help restaurateurs change the type of work" thousands of restaurateurs reply today with an open letter to the Hon. Castelli signed by their representative organizations led by a combative Gianfranco Vissani. Even if Castelli later declared that she had been misunderstood ("The citation of the restaurant is an example and not an attack on the category, as someone instrumentally wanted to imply"). In fact, Castelli's reasoning was more complex ("“They are long-term processes, of course, but if a person decides not to go and sit in a restaurant anymore, the entrepreneur must be helped to perhaps start another business and not lose his job and his creativity must also be supported: he could have seen a new business to deal with”). But the omelette was done by then.
“If the times and methods are wrong, it will cause damage – thus begins the open letter – For us, the comment of the deputy minister on the service broadcast by TG2 is rejected. We are no longer willing to excuse, understand or justify. We have become intolerant of these television slips that put an entire sector in the media pillory. They gave us lazy people, revolutionaries, fined people and now also incompetent ones. All these appellations do not belong to our category which represents an important Italian economic column (13% of GDP)
The restaurateurs – continues the letter from Vissani and from the organizations that have adhered to the document – have never asked the government for customers, they have asked for sustainability for the reopenings. Many activities have reopened with the awareness of starting over in an emergency situation, where the proceeds do not cover the costs.
With the courage and spirit of sacrifice that always distinguishes our category, we have chosen to want to continue giving away a raised shutter in the city, to want to be close to our collaborators, to make up for a state that has left hundreds of thousands of industry workers.
Despite everything we find the positivity and dignity of not giving up and trying to preserve employment and preserve the food and wine tradition, the driving force of Made in Italy.
We have asked for concrete and sufficient aid to safeguard our activities, willing to take on further unwanted and unforeseen debts that will take away more years from our will to grow, develop and innovate. We just ended up with a package of promises and promises still broken.
Added to all this - the document continues - is the incapacity of political communication. We never expected a totally out of focus statement from Deputy Minister Castelli.
Since the era of enterprise 4.0 began, you have offered companies digitization, robotics, e-commerce, technological apps, ecology, scooters, delivery and much more, but none of this represents the essence of the fundamental principles of catering. of hospitality, welcome and relationship.
Do you want to see us all eat in front of the PC in smartworkig? – the signatories of the open letter ask controversially – So you are free to cage us at home and in offices and leave the cities at the mercy of degradation and clandestine activities. Without workers, without students, without tourists, thousands of hotels, museums and public establishments will soon lower their shutters and never raise them again.
Politics is not a show but it has the responsibility to say the right things, in the right way and with the right words. After artists, chefs and restaurateurs are the most creative category there is.
Dear Minister Castelli, we don't need help to change the way we do our business. The problem cannot be solved by inviting non-convertible companies to convert to something else. Don't force yourself to analyze the market that changes in supply and demand, we know how to do it well too. Right now we don't need to hear any of this, we need tourism and mobility to come back to life in our streets. We need – concludes the letter – that you carry out your promises then we will talk if you want about CATERING 4.0”.
The document is signed by Gianfranco Vissani with Treviso Imprese Unite, Milanese Restaurateurs, Valle Camonica Restaurateurs Association and Upper Camonica Valley Public Exercises Association, Gussago Franciacorta Restaurateurs Association, Palazzolese Food and Wine Association, Lombardia Liguria Enterprise Movement Starts Again, Emilia Romagna Restaurateurs, Tuscany Restaurateurs, Futuro Ho.re.ca Pisa, RistorItalia, Horeca Ciociaria, Merchants Association for Salerno, Movimento Impresa Puglia, AIOS, ARTHoB.
However, Gambero Rosso takes to the streets and spears in favor of the Deputy Minister of the Economy, taking up passages from Castelli's declarations and annotating them from time to time, removing them from the suggestions of hasty and suggestive comments: "think of the many entrepreneurs who for centuries lived thanks exclusively to the lunch break. Public exercises transformed into canteens rarely of excellence in exchange for a meal voucher for a few euros. Maybe closed in the evening. Seriously - Gambero Rosso asks - is it wrong to say that this model is probably finished or in any case is in a waning phase (even when you return to the office by easing smart working)? Is it seriously wrong to say that whoever offered this level of service should think about how to change register? Is it seriously wrong to say that those who until yesterday lived happily plucking non-European tourists must today - instead of keeping closed pending the return of the birds - find another role?
Like Gambero Rosso we deal directly only with the high end of the sector, only with examples of excellence, whether they are a small unreachable ice cream shop, a micro farm or a large gastronomic restaurant with 150 employees. Nonetheless, it does not escape us that a large part of the remaining sector needs a great moment of renewal which also passes, there would be nothing wrong, for the exit of some entrepreneur not suitable for this area because they are improvised and no longer updated and perhaps very suitable to other areas. This is even more true in recent years, during which the world of catering has welcomed an enormous number of non-professional operators. Major crises are an unrepeatable opportunity for changes to manifest themselves. History tells us: all the great crises have generated changes orchestrated on the search for greater coherence and quality. An example? The Italian wine boom is the result of the methanol scandal. Even at the time companies found themselves at a crossroads: change or die. Nobody bet on the rhetoric of doing as they always have and everyone rolled up their sleeves adapting to the new scenario: today Italy is among the countries (if not il paese) leader in wine for quality and quantity of production”.
The conclusions of Gambero Rosso follow, which perhaps sound harsh but realistic: “As can therefore be seen, it is effectively full of restaurateurs who have to change jobs, perhaps remaining in the restaurant sector for charity, but modulating their role and their contribution to this sector. And it is right, in this process, that they are helped and supported by the state given that things are moving too quickly and it is difficult for these small companies to cope with changes that would normally have been articulated over several years".
