Catering Day: 10,000 participating venues and a proposal for a law

Fifty events and the participation of 85 industry associations and 10,000 restaurants in Italy and abroad that will offer a special dedicated dish and the chance to participate in a charity initiative. The second Catering Day scheduled for next Saturday, 18 May, was presented in Milan. According to restaurateurs, it is an 'inclusive, solidarity-based and deeply ethical popular event aimed at celebrating a renewed sense of community through the enhancement of the culture of Italian hospitality dedicated to restaurateurs, chefs, waiters and all the other protagonists of the world of Public Establishments' that represents 'a special moment under the banner of the art of conviviality, sharing and hospitality'.

The programme was illustrated in Rome at the Sala della Regina in Palazzo Montecitorio, where a proposal law, already filed in the Chamber of Deputies, for the establishment of Catering Day was also presented.

"I believe that Italian cuisine is the most appreciated in the world. Think about how much diversity and variety our products and foods have and how they are part of our identity. We must pass on to the new generations the richness of their diversity, which coincides with goodness and quality. Everyone envies our products, we must be proud of our specificities. We must not only value them, but also pass them on, against attempts to standardise everything. There is richness in diversity, which must be defended,' said the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Lorenzo Fontana. 'An important day,' added Fontana, 'for the value it has in Italy and abroad. A day to emphasise also the welcome we find in businesses that are often family-run, a peculiar feature of our country, a difference, an important specificity that contributes to enhancing the made in Italy and strengthening our values and cultural identity. Think of the popular culture behind every typical Italian dish, which has often become part of the culture of Italy as a whole and of the world. A culture that should make us all proud'.

"It's right that this celebration has taken place today,' said the Minister for Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Francesco Lollobrigida - moreover in the highest place in the Chamber, because the Chamber represents a place where there is not just one part of Italians but the entire representation of Italians and therefore the ideal place to propose unifying elements and I believe that the defence of quality, the defence of our model of being together, of being well, also through catering, is not the heritage of one or the other political party. So I hope and hope that there will even be, with respect to the proposal made by Fipe Commercio, the widest possible and transversal adhesion of Parliament'.

"Catering Day represents a highly symbolic and meaningful moment for the world of public establishments," said Lino Enrico Stoppani, president of Fipe-Confcommercio. The second edition, attended this year by 10,000 businesses and 85 associations of our system, aims to reiterate the economic, social and cultural importance of a sector that generates 54 billion in added value and employs over 1.4 million people. Hospitality, conviviality and innovation will be the themes we will start from to stimulate in-depth reflection on the future of the sector and the trends underway not only in our country, but also outside it".