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Our journey in the post Covid-19 world in order to discover the benefits and solutions offered by our waveco® machine, thanks to its innovative technique of induced maturation©, continues on the Marche hills between Berta and San Severino Marche, where the chef Michela Domizi meets us in her agritourism, the “Sella di Pitino”. In this little corner of paradise, chef Michela wins over her customers with a traditional cuisine from Marche, as well as with innovation and a research of new flavours, with an eye to seasonality and quality of raw materials.

Unfortunately, even here the pandemic overturned everybody’s life and jeopardized many commercial businesses, and the chef told us that her business paid a very high price: “Frankly, I can say – explains Michela – that this shut-down period and the following crisis caused a huge economic damage, but luckily we could now get back on track and boldly restart the business, thanks to the new culinary solutions now offered on our menu, that are a consequence of using a waveco® machine; however, going back to my restaurant after 50 days and starting to use again my machines was a strong emotion”.

The lockdown lasted for a very long time, that we guess allowed every professional to think about new solutions and new strategies to reshape their business or their working methods, something that – as explained by chef Domizi – was the focus of her interests: “lockdown was a time both for reflection on my business’ future and work on food products. Having a machine like waveco® allowed me to study and deepen my knowledge on how to use it on every kind of food, especially the ones related to our culinary tradition and our territory, that are also the ones we offer in our restaurant. This long path of research on culinary solutions led to the creation of new dishes that we now offer to our customers and that were behind the reopening and restart of the restaurant”.

As many chefs told us, going back to work meant overcoming so many difficulties to get back to normal; a process that unfortunately will be a long one, but that could be accelerated by adopting new solutions as our chef Domizi just said and did in her restaurant: “waveco® helped so much in the process of going back to normal in our job – stresses Michela. The most crucial aspect in adopting this new technological solution is the one concerning the increased quality of products. Thanks to the research run during quarantine and to a better and wider use of this machine, we could increase the quality of the dishes we offer to our customers. Besides, by using waveco® – we can use and offer to our customers new food products that have never been on our menu before”.

So, new technological solutions and quality products are at the heart of our restart here at agritourism “Sella di Pitino”, that luckily could count on an improved cost management, a crucial aspect for every business, as we all know. In this case as well, as reported by the chef, our waveco® machine was the engine that started the motion: “the cost headings in a restaurant business are many and unfortunately during and after the pandemic they didn’t decrease. Luckily, thanks to waveco®, we are managing to cut all these costs, especially those related to work management and energy costs; and most importantly, thanks to induced maturation© we can get a longer shelf life of our product, thus rationalising and reducing the purchase costs. Another aspect – goes on the chef – that results in a huge benefit for my business, and that I reconsidered during this restart period, is the reduction in preparation and cooking time: before the pandemic I didn’t really care about energy costs caused by, for example, long cooking times. Today, by using waveco®, I can reduce time by one-third, thus getting the benefit of a lower energy cost for my business”.

No doubt this time saving and energy cost reduction are even more crucial aspects for the survival of a restaurant at this stage of the post pandemic, given the actual uncertainty about customers’ presence. It is therefore necessary to reshape work parameters and rethink the ingredients used in one’s menu, reducing for instance all food waste, something that chef Michela could do thanks to waveco®: “before the pandemic – she tells us – because of the huge quantity of work at the restaurant, the machine was used in a limited way, and only for certain preparations or food products. Today, on the other hand, we use it for every food and preparation, and by doing so I’m able to use 100% of the product, thus reducing all waste. In the past, some parts of the meat or vegetables were discarded as they were considered of a lesser quality, or due to their excessive toughness; today with induced maturation© we could overcome this situation and we can now use for the creation of our dishes all parts of a food product, even the less valuable, thus enhancing them and obtaining high-quality preparations both in terms of organoleptic and nutritional values, to the advantage of our customers.”.

No doubt – concluded the chef – that, due to the limitation in the customer reception we are forced to respect, the factor concerning avoiding food product waste in the preparation of our dishes is the added value of our restart. And this is possible only thanks to waveco®”.

To restart her restaurant, Chef Domizi focused on the quality of ingredients, reducing food waste as well, a key factor whose importance many restaurant owners and chefs in our journey will stress, as they embraced it. Before we move on and say goodbye to chef Michela, we asked her to offer a thought or some advice for her colleagues about the waveco® technology, especially concerning this long phase of restart. These are her words: “nowadays customers are a lot more attentive to the genuineness of a product and the quality of the dishes they want to consume at a restaurant. With this machine, we are able to completely meet our customers’ demands and at the same time to obtain a significant saving in terms of food cost: by using it, we could organise in a more proficuous way the work done at the restaurant, we had a drop in energy cost but more importantly we could increase the shelf life of products, which allows us to use food for much longer without altering its properties. All these factors, of course, result in a greater profit that in a short time permits to pay off the machine’s cost.

A small example from my reality, just to stress the level of possible saving thanks to this machine: we work a lot with “tagliatas” (sliced steaks); before waveco®, we used to buy the finest meat cuts, that were maturated when needed in order to serve a softer food to our customers. Today with waveco® we can buy non-maturated, less noble cuts of an animal (still quality cuts, of course) and serve to our customers a product with the same level of softness and better organoleptic and nutritional values than before.

To my colleague chefs or owners I can just say not to dwell on the economic aspect of the machine but to focus instead on the benefits that waveco® allows to realise from its first use in your kitchen: in a few months, your investment will be paid off and contextually your work will be improved, while ensuring a better food quality and new culinary solutions to your customers.

The future of food service in post-pandemic will be focusing on food quality, and waveco® will be your valuable ally for your restaurant’s success”.

Thank you Chef, and we wish you a nice day at work!

For those who would love to enjoy a taste of the delicacies prepared with waveco® by chef Michela Domizi, we suggest to book a table at her Agritourism “La Sella di Pitino”, in Pitino, n. 139, San Severino Marche, Macerata; Tel. 339 376 5410 – 346 092 0621.