Italy: Meet the people changing food landscape

Rome: Italian food has always been everyone’s favorite. According to one study of more than 25,000 people in 24 different countries, pizza and pasta were found at the top of the most popular foods in the world.

With cherished recipes and ingredients that are part of a proud national heritage, Italy has a long-standing relationship with food that is defined by tradition.

But now entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, and chefs from unconventional backgrounds are now claiming a seat at the table. Who are the new voices entering the arena? What is the current food landscape in Italy, as of today? And how is it changing? We spoke to some professionals at the cutting edge of Italy’s food scene.

According to media reports, the size of the food delivery sector in Italy nearly doubled last year, due to the pandemic. 60,000 full- and part-time workers are employed in the industry across Italy, with a combined revenue of more than €900 million. With multiple lockdowns and restrictions changing seemingly every week in 2020 and 2021, restaurants had to adapt — and takeaway culture boomed, helped by delivery platforms like Glovo or Uber Eats.

Not everyone has been happy with this cultural change driven by multinationals, with Italy’s restaurateurs’ union, for example, raising its voice against what they describe as an industry that’s killing off the restaurant. But some food entrepreneurs in Italy are surfing on the trend, combining the high-quality products associated with traditional Italian food with a community focus — as well as a fast and reliable door-to-door service.

Take the new food delivery start up Quarter. Based in Rome, Quarter is a new food delivery service that operates just like current delivery platforms, but with a focus on building community connections. Restaurants sign up to get a dedicated webpage, allowing them to retain control over the consumer’s hospitality experience. Deliveries are then handled by Quarter’s own fleet of couriers, but restaurants can oversee and choose the customer’s experience when it comes to delivery — including compostable options for instance. They also focus on mom and pop shops, the little salumeria down the street, or the neighborhood forno, allowing these local outlets to grow their own customer base.

Alongside delivery, one of the newest trends in Italian food culture is brunch — and high quality non-Italian products are in demand. But it’s not all avocado toast. Bagels, the Yiddish cuisine that became a staple in metropolises from New York to London, have now arrived in Rome.

Linda Martinez and Steve Brenner are the people behind the Beehive Bagels project. Hailing from the States, they opened back in 1999 a small hostel in Rome that offered cooking classes and had a café for many years.