Tag: work

Work in the food & wine world: more technology and tailor-made services – Italian Cuisine

The passion for food and wine has been transforming the professions linked to this world for some time. Some are still little known or widespread, but they represent new opportunities. We are not talking about cooks and pastry chefs, but of lesser known activities that arise from the great passion for the food & wine and everything related to cooking, ingredients, healthy eating, but also innovation and technology. Accomplices a certain resourcefulness, a pinch of creativity and also the desire to contribute to the fight against food waste.

The food coach
Myriam Sabolla, The food Sister, he has worked in communication for many years and today he is food coach and trainer, after graduating as a cook at the Joia Academy, the vegetarian cooking school of chef Pietro Leeman. What exactly does the food coach do? It helps you to cook good things that are good, colorful and cheerful, for everyday life, without having to spend hours in the kitchen and rediscovering the happiness of feeding yourself and others. A personalized and tailor-made service.

"My job – says Myriam – it combines organization and cuisine, this is because my desire is to help people with simple planning tools, such as the weekly menu. I also like to tell how physical spaces in the kitchen and beyond, influence our attitudes, so the kitchen and pantry reorganization phase is so important". But who are the people who turn to the food coach? "They are mostly women, mothers and freelancers – the food coach explains – precisely the people who find it most difficult to organize their days between unexpected family and work. Working with flexible hours and at home is often not an advantage, indeed! So it's nice to work with them because I feel very empathic, we have the same difficulties and problems, in short".

Sommelier at home with an App
Marco Mauri, Luca Intelligente and Maria Grazia Salatino are three young Brianza people, wine enthusiasts and experts who started the start up Unpack your personal sommelier. The sommelier at home, which arrives home to embellish an important dinner or an anniversary or on the farm for an event or a presentation. Stappo selects the best bottles of wine, also agrees with the customer based on the dishes that will be served and then through the story and the history of a label explains the aromas and flavors of the chosen wine.

A different and more intimate way of promoting wine culture, which also sees the organization of wine tours and events, such as the Tram Wine during the Fuorisalone 2019, in partnership with the ATM transport company and the Milan guides Con Voi. The city tour by tram while tasting excellent wines, given the many requests, will also be replicated in June. The profession of sommelier marries creativity and seeks more original opportunities to promote the culture of wine, the traditions and the charm of the world of viticulture and winemaking, always starting from the tasting.

The anti-waste apps
Against waste comes technology. Ecofood Prime is the App designed by two young Sicilians that connects consumers, merchants and solidarity associations with the aim of limiting food waste starting from simple daily choices. Martina Emanuele and Giuseppe Blanca, founders of Olivia Srls have developed this system of commercial offers, donations and activities to save and reduce food waste. "Faced with a problem of planetary proportions such as food waste – say Giuseppe and Martina – we believe that change can come from the simple gestures we make every day. It's enough to be aware of it.

This is why Ecofood Prime aims to educate people on more sustainable consumption, but also on a lifestyle that respects our environment and allows resources to be better distributed.". The mechanism of the platform is very simple, thanks to the ecoshop on the smartphone, the user receives the offers of the nearest stores that use the system to offer food and food products that are likely to remain unsold, because they have a tight deadline, are in surplus or with aesthetic defects, but still perfect to be consumed. These products can be purchased at advantageous prices and in the meantime the consumer saves on the purchase while the operator recovers part of the costs. The App also contains a list of associations and volunteers to whom to donate the products purchased. Ecofood Prime, part from the city of Palermo experimentally where it is expanding its network of operators.

A contribution to improving their behavior, to achieve greater awareness and reduce consumption also comes from another App, born in 2015 in Denmark, present in 10 European countries and recently landed in Italy. Is called To Good To Go, that is, too good to be thrown away. The application collects food offers in perfect condition, but close to the deadline and therefore ready to be thrown away, directly from bakeries, supermarkets, restaurants, pastry shops.

The operator put on sale the Magic Box, of the bag with fresh products and dishes left unsold at the end of the day and the buyer, in the role of waste warrior, to avoid that good food ends up in the trash, buy it from the App and then go directly to the point of sale for collection, buying up the products at an extremely affordable price. The research allows you to find a specific dish or the activities that adhere to the initiative. To Good To Go is an application that has managed to find a balance between the basic idea that is to contribute to the solution of the problem related to food waste and the economic sustainability of the platform itself. In Italy, we start from Milan where, after the launch in late March, numerous bars, pastry shops and restaurants are joining daily. All that remains is to download the App, geolocate and find the nearest Magic Box, which will also allow a reduction of 2 kilos of Co2.

Mariacristina Coppeto
April 2019

DISCOVER THE COOKING COURSES OF SALT & PEPE

The secrets of Giannasi's chicken. A family story and love for work – Italian Cuisine

Giannasi's life and chickens. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, the kiosk-rotisserie most loved by Milanese citizens

There is one thing that distinguishes the true connoisseurs of Milan: having eaten at least once in a lifetime Giannasi's spit-roasted chicken. But how do you eat once the Spit-roasted chicken in the city? Yet here it is not just about taste, because this small kiosk in Piazza Buozzi (Porta Romana area) is now a piece of the history of Milan, an emblem that well reveals the changes in our eating habits. Moreover, in an era in which everyone tends to enlarge, to expand their offices or to open new ones, Giannasi does not move from the original site, as the sign says since 1967. Perhaps because we must have a great soul to succeed in think and think small. And this is exactly what this once-thin, thin man, always with a hat on his head, just over six feet tall, awarded with the Golden Ambrogino, managed to do.

Giannasi: it all started like this

Dorando Giannasi was born in Emilia, in Civago and you never lost his elegance. Not yet of age he joined his sister Graziella in Milan, where he worked as an aide in a poultry shop in Via Teodosio, in the Lambrate district. At the time, however, they only sold raw chickens, because they were not used to cook them yet. Dorando starts working with his sister, as an apprentice in the same family, who takes care of them as if they were children within a few years. «I remember very well the impact with this city: at the beginning I could not sleep, because I found myself catapulted by a ridge where silence reigned, to an environment that was a bit uncomfortable for me, if it hadn't been for how we were welcomed by our masters, or by the Muccioli family . Until one day Lucia and Umberto Muccioli decided to retire and sell the Via Teodosio poultry shop.

The turning point of 1967

But Messrs. Muccioli had seen Dorando and Graziella grow up, from an early age. And for this they would never have left them on a road without work. So they decided to help the two brothers, choosing, buying and renovating for them the current kiosk in Piazza Buozzi. "It was 1967 and they told us: when you can, you will give us the money back. And so did my sister and I . For twenty years they have worked hard, paying all their debts and selling raw chickens only, some wild game and some rabbit. Work has always increased, until eating habits started to change and they were among the first witnesses.

From 100% raw to 100% cooked

Between the end of the nineties and the beginning of the new millennium, the needs of consumers changed: first with the request also for red meat, beef and pork, which the Giannasi immediately added; then with fast life, which completely revolutionized eating habits. People have started cooking less and consuming more and more ready-made foods. Thus they had the intuition to keep up with the times, increasingly reducing raw chickens and increasing those cooked on the spit. Only everything happened within a very short time and in just 10 years they went from 100% raw chicken to 100% cooked chicken, spit-roasted and always paired with baked potatoes: "We rarely sold chickens without potatoes" .

The secrets for a perfect spit-roast chicken

In the past there were many more rotisseries, which stood out above all for the spit-roasted chicken, the symbol par excellence, loved by almost everyone. "He is a coeur business," explains Dorando who, as we have seen, is always kept up to date. So the Giannasi brothers went to various rotisserie colleagues to learn how to prepare it to perfection, but nobody fully satisfied them. Until, after rehearsals and trials, they found their version: a very personal one secret mix of spices and salt, which is a fundamental element; a fixed weight of 1 kg of chicken (which after about two hours of cooking becomes about 750 g) to eat usually in two for € 4.50, price still very popular; and the provenance, always Aia. The maximum that their structure allows you to prepare is 1350 chickens a day, apex they reach during the beautiful days, in mid-spring, or Saturday for lunch; while the average is around 5 thousand chickens per week. They never thought of expanding or changing locations, and perhaps this is another of their secrets: otherwise Giannasi would not have been what it was, what it represented for at least three generations, giving a familiar sense to anyone passing through that intersection of Piazza Buozzi.

Giannasi today

Dorando Giannasi today has 23 employees, including his daughter Paola who continues the tradition. Dorando may no longer go to the kiosk, but "I have always worked with passion, I enjoy coming here every morning, maybe that's why they gave me the golden Ambrogino". Once the clientele was all female, while today they are predominantly male, middle-aged, «secondo me all single , Dorando jokes. The rotisseries have now all closed, and it is a pity, says Dorando "because competition means first of all stimulus". They have recently started funding the AIRC for cancer research; then they opened a small shop in front of their laboratory, but it's just a showcase to launch the promotions they make every month on a different product, sometimes lasagna, sometimes the potato gateau, others still the erbazzone, what's left of their Emilian origins, to which in the end they have always remained linked. "Today, even though I am my age, I am a happy man, because I can look back and see that I have always behaved well with everyone, because people have to treat it well. And I still eat my chicken willingly .

eat healthy and tasty if you work from home – Italian Cuisine

Colorful and healthy dishes, which you can prepare at the last or to be frozen so as to have them ready: let's find out what a freelance lunch is like

It happens to anyone work from home: the temptation to grab anything from the fridge and swallow it in front of the computer is so great. Time seems always to be a little, call and delivery times do not coincide with their own, it is difficult to separate personal life from work. However, to find the right energy and take care of yourself, the freelance he must carefully take care of the lunch, perhaps arranging himself for prepare it in advance. Here are some tips.

Plan all the meals of the week

Go to the supermarket with already the list of everything you could prepare during the week is ideal for buying only what you need and can anticipate some preparations, such as soups or unique dishes. Make a mirror of the menu of the week, so you will not find yourself at the last to open the fridge and get snacks and unhealthy ingredients.

Sandwiches and wraps

There are many workers who complain about eating only sandwiches. But not going to the bar every day you do not have this risk. That's why once or twice a week you can insert one in your freelance lunch greedy sandwich or one stuffed piadina – maybe for that day that you know will be particularly challenging – or a toast or, if you want something different, a avocado toast. Always remember to accompany the sandwiches with a 'salad, green, mixed or tomatoes, so as to take the right dose of vitamins.

The soups and the unique dishes

Prepare a pot of minestrone or a boule of spelled you hate quinoa with vegetables and cheese cubes, for example, is convenient because both preparations are kept in the refrigerator for several days, or even better, in the freezer, in the case of soups, and just defrost them at meal time.

salads

Not the usual ones salads: even the eye in fact wants its part and a colorful meal, greedy and light makes you work again with more energy. Choose a protein, like meat or fish, that you cook quickly. So you just need to grill, for example, fillets of sea bream or chicken breasts and add them to a mix of fresh vegetables.

The extra advice: get away!

Maybe in a few days you will not be able to get it a full hour of lunch breakbut sitting at the computer all day is not good for mood or health. Stop at least half an hour, rather read a book or watch a TV series and savor your meal calmly.