A tricolor goes around the streets of New York spreading the word of Italian food.
The message travels aboard a food truck, not surprisingly called 'Cento Percento', and keeps its head high among the thousands who travel the Big Apple every day from one end to the other.
'Cento Percento' does not go unnoticed and the white, red and green colors with the words 'Italian Street Food' are the best business card to attract attention.
On the menu the classic Tuscan focaccia, stuffed with cured meats and cheeses strictly imported from Italy.
All in the name of absolute simplicity just as the product is traditionally sold.
The food truck is the creature of Nik Barricelli, a New Yorker with a family of Italian origins (between Campania and Sicily), who decided to make a dream come true, leaving behind the annus horribilis 2020 with the onset of the pandemic.
His story seems to come out of the script of 'Chef - The perfect recipe', the 2014 film written, directed, produced and starring Jon Favreau.
Like the protagonist Carl Casper, Nik lost his job but due to Covid.
The choice was between staying unemployed waiting for better times or giving life to his true passion, which is Italian food.
"Before the pandemic - he told ANSA - I went to Italy several times a year and I particularly fell in love with Florence and its culinary tradition, in particular the way in which focaccia and sandwiches are prepared. it is located in New York despite the variety of cuisines and so I thought of exporting the concept and recreating the classic Tuscan focaccia ".
Nik also explained that his goal is to make New Yorkers try something they have never tried before.
The choice of the food truck was quite obvious in a period when restaurants were only allowed to serve meals outdoors or with take-away and home delivery.
Nik conceived the Cento Percento menu trying to establish a link between the two countries and the names chosen for the focaccias bear witness to this.
'The Mutha Fata' (Mother and father, Italian-American for mother-father, mother / father), Muffaletta, the classic Italian-American sandwich popular in New Orleans.
To Joe Pesce again, a tribute to the actor Joe Pesci, whose surname has however been transcribed as the Italian word fish.
Given the success of his food truck, Nik is already thinking about expanding.
In his future he also sees himself carrying around the classic Italian ice cream as well as the Italian food par excellence, pizza.