How did you realize that gastronomy was your passion?
Alex was born and raised in Milan and at the age of 13, unlike his brothers, he already knew what he wanted to do in life. “When I was little, I spent all of my summers at my family’s restaurant in Vicenza, where I became passionate about food and about making customers happy and satisfied. So, I decided to study hotel management and become a sommelier, gaining my first work experiences in the restaurant of a hotel in Milan.
The desire for a better career and wider exposure to the hospitality sector brought me to London, where I had the opportunity to work for different restaurants. I initially came here to learn English for a couple of months and then I ended up staying and building my whole life and career in London, where I spent the last 20 years.
What made you stay in London?
London is a very dynamic city where restaurants continuously innovate and have more opportunities to grow as a business compared to Italy. This is because as a city it is more international and there are more tourists willing to spend on food. Consequently, this resulted in several working opportunities for me.
Starting from the bottom as a waiter allowed me to experience hospitality at 360 degrees. I then was a sommelier at “Floriana” and then manager and co-owner of the Italian restaurant “Baretto“.
After working at Baretto for 12 years, I decided to change atmosphere and went to help a friend at his Italian restaurant, “Stecca”.
“Stecca” is a traditional Italian restaurant owned by an Italian Chef, native from Emilia Romagna, that offers what internationals love and expect from Italian cuisine: burrata, parmigiana, Milanese Veal and fresh home-made pasta which is one of its specialties.
How did Covid-19 impact “Stecca” specifically?
We had to change our formula at Stecca by introducing “Stecca at home”, our own delivery service for the costumers living in the neighbourhood and by using delivery services, such as Deliveroo, for all other areas.
We also decided to launch a new project called “Stecca deli”, a selection of high-quality and authentic Italian products. We believe that these two new projects will be fundamental to support our business also when we will reopen, as we will have less tables and it will probably take a few years until the hospitality industry will go back to normal as we knew it.
We are lucky because we are not a very big restaurant, and therefore it will be “easier” for us to reopen and cover our costs. Thankfully, we also have a garden, where we will be able to serve some of our customers while guaranteeing social distancing.
For what concerns restaurants with many covers, I don’t think it will be possible and entirely convenient to reopen, as the majority of the staff either went back to their countries of origin or were fired. Consequently, the restaurant landscape in London in the next few months will possibly change.
In Italy, the environment is different as not many restaurants can afford to arrange home deliveries and people in general tend to eat more at home and at their “nonna’s” house. Even if at the end of the lock-down many people improvised themselves as bakers and “pizzaioli“, I believe that when our lives will go back to “normal” people won’t have the time and patience to cook at home anymore and will probably go back to restaurants.
What are the challenges for the future after Covid-19?
Having employees during summer in London has always been quite tricky. Many of them resign during the spring chasing opportunities in touristy seaside destinations, such as Mykonos or Ibiza. Furthermore, besides the pandemic, I believe Brexit will have severe consequences on the hospitality sector in London. It will be more difficult to find workforce as it will probably become more expensive to live and travel here from abroad. Almost half of London’s restaurants’ staff members (especially those that are lower skilled) are international and won’t have a visa or necessary requirements to live and work in the UK. This will lead to many complications and a potential decline in the quality of service together with an increase of the prices of imported food.
For what concerns Stecca, we used to have big groups of people (mainly international) coming for both business lunches and dinner parties. However, as many airlines are going bankrupt due to the current crisis and as traveling is getting more expensive, mass tourism as we knew it will not be back in the next few years. We will have to count even more on local and loyal costumers!