Catering

Longino & Cardenal: Customers in quality restaurants always want to know more about what they are eating

President Riccardo Uleri: fine dining is not in crisis, but there are too many gourmet restaurants, they cannot be an everyday experience

by Maria Teresa Manuelli

3 February 2026

Uno dei prodotti del catalogo di Longino&partner

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

'Fine dining is not suffering at all. The problem is that there are simply too many gourmet restaurants'. Riccardo Uleri, president of Longino & Cardenal, dismantles the theses about the alleged crisis of fine dining with one sentence. And he did so during the annual convention at the Castello Bolognini in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, where the company presented the new additions to the 2026 catalogue and offered a lucid reading of the trends sweeping the sector.

New Products

Among the novelties are four lines interpreting the needs of the professional kitchen. The Gronn (which means 'green' in Danish) brand, launched by star chefs Benoit Dewitte and Jeremy Meirte, offers oils based on local ingredients with 90% healthy unsaturated fats and zero waste philosophy. Bonilla a la Vista are handmade potatoes with sea salt and olive oil. Alondra uses the Noble Harvesting method for stress-free caught seafood, preserved by cryogenic freezing for up to two years. Gourmand & Guiard provides fresh sauces, stews and broths without preservatives, with Hpp technology allowing for shelf life of between 90 and 150 days.

Products that respond to a precise demand: that of quality catering which, according to Uleri, maintains a different logic from the gourmet segment. And this is precisely the starting point for understanding the state of the sector.

Not crisis, but oversupply

Uleri's thesis is clear: 'At the turn of the 2000s there was an explosion of interest in this type of cuisine. Today there are simply too many gourmet restaurants'. The president explains that gourmet dining is not "for a few people, but for a few occasions". Even for those with medium-high incomes. "Gourmet dining requires concentration, it is like going to the theatre: one goes one night and then for two months one goes to the cinema. You don't go to the theatre every night because it is demanding, especially mentally'.

The issue is therefore not crisis, but rather saturation in areas without a sufficient catchment area. "If you have a Michelin star in an out-of-the-way place, people who live around there go there once a year. If that catchment area does not have enough population, the restaurant cannot fill up every night."

Raw meat and fish remain crucial

The haute cuisine, however, maintains constant logic in its menus. Rather, the real trends can be observed in the fine dining sector. "Here we see that there is agrowth of meat, especially where the consumer wants to know more: steakhouses are springing up with the display of matured meat. People no longer simply eat a T-bone steak, but they want to know which animal, breed, origin, maturation'.

Raw fish, then, is an almost obligatory presence. "Compared to 30 years ago, when it was not known and smoked or salted products were used, nowadays raw fish tastes better and costs less for the restaurateur. It does not require processing, so it works very well'.

On vegetarian proteins, Uleri maintains realism: 'Vegetarian restaurants can be counted on one hand. There is a lot of talk about it, but it is not yet a market to be considered as such'.

"The value of research"

Longino & Cardenal, listed on Euronext Growth Milan, closed 2024 with consolidated revenues of EUR 36.9m, up 3.1% from EUR 35.8m in 2023. The net result remains a loss of EUR 367,000, albeit an improvement on the previous year's loss of EUR 525,000. The figures for 2025 have not yet been released, but the mood remains cautious.

Longino & Cardenal's Vision 2026 is encapsulated in the theme 'The value of research and selection', not surprisingly the theme of the convention. As Uleri stated, 'through our commitment to new product development, we want to continue to bring quality and tradition to the world.

The company, active for over 30 years, has about 5,000 customers including most of the starred restaurants in its markets, and about 100 strategic suppliers. Headquartered in Italy, the Group is present in Hong Kong and Dubai, distributing over 1,800 products with about 80 agents.