Villa Zanelli was the splendid setting for the “Catering Day” of Savona. An event promoted by Confcommercio Savona and Fipe-Confcommercio provinciale, which anticipated the appointment on Saturday 18 May, when all of Italy will celebrate the important anniversary with over 50 events organized in the area to support, enhance and tell, obviously through dishes, the culture of conviviality and Italian cuisine.
In the Savona area there are 165 restaurateurs who have joined the initiative and who on Saturday, together with 10 thousand colleagues in Italy and abroad, will present a special dish, dedicated to the anniversary, and will promote a fundraiser in favor of Italian Caritas for the financing of three canteens spread across the national territory to offer refreshment and sociality to those living in fragile conditions.
Confcommercio Savona and the provincial Fipe have decided to play in advance: this afternoon they opened the doors of Villa Zanelli, welcoming the restaurateurs of the province, mayors and local administrators, institutions and citizens with the aim of promoting a sector that has been able to overcome the critical phase of Covid, has returned to growth, guarantees employment and a quality offer.
“Fipe Confcommercio has been celebrating Catering Day for years – explains the president of Confcommercio Savona, Enrico Schiappapietra -. This year we thought of an event that combines two excellences: the quality of the restaurateurs’ offer and Villa Zanelli, an important reality in the area. The initiative is part of the series of events that we will promote throughout 2024, in which we will also celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Ascom foundation, which later grew and became Confcommercio Savona. Our province is highly touristic in facts and numbers: the catering sector produces 30% of the GDP in the Savona area, it is a number that must be considered and makes it clear how many families live thanks to this work, which is no longer a makeshift occupation , but offers stability and satisfying careers. Today we are faced with a challenge: the concept of tourism is changing, if until some time ago we were used to destination tourism, now among the factors that influence choices there is food and wine“.
“This thread – goes on – it must be cultivated and promoted: the Savonese area will never have the spaces of other regions, but it has other excellences such as catering and food and wine. Our goal is quality tourism. We are also working on a project to fight food waste. Through Fipe, Confcommercio is about to launch the “Rimpiattino”: that is, the habit of not wasting the food left over on the restaurant plate. It can be taken home and stored away. This habit is not part of Italian culture, while abroad it is the norm, but soon in Savona too we will distribute the kits to promote this culture, which is also a form of respect for those who struggle to fill the family plate“.
Among the objectives of the Day is also to offer a new image of the premises, understood as real “cultural agencies” of the territory, where man can be re-educated to live together. It is around the table that families meet, that friends share meals and happy moments.
“The objective of this day is to highlight a sector that has too often been silent – explained Carlomaria Balzola, president of Fipe Confcommercio Savona – The choice of Villa Zanelli is therefore not random, but the extraordinary scenario that allows us to start thinking about catering and food and wine as a tourist product in all respects. Many times we think about tourism only by thinking about beds, but we can also give an indication by thinking about restaurant seats and the people who frequent our establishments.“.
“All of us – he adds – we can witness how people stop by chance in the Savonese area, but, knowing its products at the table, then decide to return. We want to work as a team and this is why we will insistently ask the Municipalities to enhance DeCo products: they create added value“.
The Savona event was organized by Ente Fiera-Confcommercio, as explained by the manager Laura Chiara Filippi: “A very important moment for Ente Fiera which enthusiastically took up the task of coordinating such an important event in a splendid location such as Villa Zanelli. It was an opportunity to highlight one of the most important sectors among the categories of the Confcommercio group, that of interacting between Fipe and the provincial Confcommercio, a way to unite the territory and underline its importance, which always arises from teamwork between public and private. Ente Fiera therefore wants to start again from here to promote the territory, its companies and its professionals and thus create a synergy with the entire system that can benefit everyone and be the beginning of many other coordinated and specialized initiatives. We thank all those who actively collaborated on this initiative, the partners, the speakers and the administrations and institutions present“.
The event started with the guided tours of Villa Zanelli, then the program got to the heart of the round table on the value of local food and wine and raising awareness of food waste, moderated by journalists Luca Galtieri and Stefano Pezzini and which the entire world of food and wine and catering in Savona was involved: from producers to restaurateurs, through institutions and experts.
The president of Fipe Confcommercio Savona Carlomaria Balzola spoke about the value of food and wine tourism, the vice mayor of Savona Elisa Di Padova about food understood as culture and how Savona is preparing for the challenge of food and wine, on the occasion of the candidacy as capital of culture 2027. The word was passed to the Lombardy councilor Elena Lucchini who brought the Lombard experience as an example of valorisation of local specialties to broaden the offer and knowledge of the territory.
The entrepreneur Marco Luzzati of Cascine Praie spoke about the excellence of Savona and spoke about oenology and the recovery of typical products and valorisation by creating excellence. The Calcagno family brought the experience of the agricultural company, which since 1984 has been engaged in the cultivation of the typical Genoese PDO basil. Lorena Germano, an expert connoisseur of the truffle of Val Bormida, illustrated the process of valorising a product, the truffle, to re-evaluate an area on a tourist level.
The starred chef Claudio Pasquarelli, who for years in his restaurant “Da Claudio” transforms local excellences into tasty dishes, illustrated the revisitation of the typical product to highlight the value of the territory.
The Savona “Restaurant Day” was also the opportunity to award prizes to three Savona restaurateurs as ambassadors of hospitality: Franca Capra from the Moses restaurant in Celle Bazzano family from the Quintilio restaurant in Altare Claudio Pasquarelli from the da Claudio restaurant in Bergeggi
SECTOR DATA The 2024 catering report prepared by Fipe and presented in recent days in Rome lists 2023 as a positive year for the sector, which recorded an added value of over 54 billion euros (+3.9%), employed over 1 .4 million and consumption outside the home which reached 92 billion euros (+7%). On a national scale, there are 95,870 businesses managed by women (28.9% of the total), while there are 42,652 businesses led by an under 35 (12.9% of the total), mainly concentrated in the restaurant sector (60, 3%).
In the Savona area, the catering sector leads the ranking of tourism businesses, employing hundreds of workers, many of whom are young people under 30 years of age. Of the 4290 active companies (registered offices) referable to the Tourism CCNL, the largest number is represented by restaurants, which are 1475 (34%), followed by 1242 bars (29%).
Then there are beach establishments, 430 in the province (10%), 398 hotels (9%), 185 other types of accommodation (4%) and 186 ice cream and pastry shops (4%)1. After the crisis due to Covid, which penalized the sector greatly, the Savonese restaurant industry was able to recover and has today returned to pre-pandemic turnover levels.
