Authentic Italian is making its way more and more in the United States, and especially in New York, but it is on the verge of a lack of skilled labor and problems of supplying products from Italian exports.
The state of health of Italian catering in the stars and stripes hospitality industry as well as its challenges and perspectives was discussed during the 'Challenges & Perspectives of the hospitality industry' panel which took place at the ICE headquarters (Istituto for foreign trade) in New York and attended by, in addition to the director of Ice Usa Antonino Laspina, who introduced the works, the journalist and critic of food and wine John Mariani, Gianfranco Sorrentino Managing Partner of Il Gattopardo Group and president of the Italian Group, Dino Borri, General Manager of Eataly Usa,
"For about ten years - explained Laspina to ANSA - we have been witnessing the landing on the American market of Italian entrepreneurs who, aware of the fact that there are great opportunities in this area for the authentic Italian restaurant, are investing precisely to create the authentic Italian. They do not start from the presuppositions of compromise with the traditions of the 'Italian American' cuisine because their restaurant wants to retain that customer who arrives in Italy and then goes to look for authentic Italian when he returns home ".
Laspina said that this is creating another phenomenon, namely that the traditional 'Italian American' restaurants that for years have practiced the cuisine of granma (grandmother's, ed), perhaps modified, realize that the landing of this authentic cuisine Italian will require them to bring their offer closer to Italian trends.
"This - he continues - could determine a growth in purchases of authentic products on their part.
It is no coincidence that the statistical data of 2021 recorded growth of 20, 30, 35% in food. The growth therefore does not concern only distribution or sale digital but precisely the world of Italian catering ".
But the positive trend is not without challenges and all the participants agreed that currently there is above all a problem of a lack of skilled labor from Italy that can continue to guarantee authenticity as well as problems of supplying authentic Italian products in the post Covid era.
Furthermore, authentic Italian cannot exist without the 'educational' factor.
"It is necessary - continues Laspina - to create a large education network to explain that the intrinsic qualities of the Italian product are not simply linked to a nationalistic fact but to a dynamic in the American market which is to eat better, healthier, which must also become synonymous with healthier.
Going to a restaurant today must also mean having an experience that is equal to the cultural one ".
