White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 6The Italian guidebook, Gambero Rosso,also selects the best restaurants, theequivalent of 2.2% of the nationaltotal. The guide has a three-symbol(forks) system for indicating quality. Inabsolute terms Lombardy is rankedfirst with 213 restaurants mentioned,followed by Lazio with 180 andTuscany with 174. The calculation ofthe percentage of restaurants withGambero Rosso forks out of the totalrestaurants in the ISTAT survey givessimilar results to the percentage withMichelin “knives and forks”: Trentinocomes first (10.5%), followed bySardinia (9.4%) and the Veneto(6.9%). The regions with the largestnumber of restaurants with forks are:Trentino (97% of restaurantsmentioned in the guide have forks),Friuli Venezia Giulia (94%) andLiguria (89%). At the bottom of theclassification, just under half therestaurants (approx. 48%) in Lazio,Calabria and Basilicata included in theguide are given a quality rating.In the category of large internationalhotels, 50% offer Italian cuisine(Accademia Italiana della Cucina,2007). In Italy itself the qualitysituation is much different. Very fewluxury hotels can boast a high-qualityrestaurant recognised by the specialistguides. In Italy the only five-star hotelawarded the Michelin five “knives andforks” is La Pergola in the HotelRome Cavalieri Hilton in Rome. Eightluxury hotels have been given fourMichelin “knives and forks”: one inAlta Badia, one in Milan, three inRome, two in Capri and one atRavello.Lastly, it is worth mentioning that thetaste system can rely on an extensivenetwork of associations (360 ofvarious sizes on a national or localscale with diverse aims and interests,ranging from supporting producers toorganising “academies” or cookeryschools).Distribution, communications andpromotionDistribution - Given the size of farmand food businesses (the average jobsper enterprise is 6.5), xxv most typicalregional products are sold directly atthe place of production.The distribution system is basicallyorganised in three channels:• Direct sales• Local shops, local eatingfacilities, agritourisms• Speciality shops (outside theproduction area).Almost all typical products are sent toregions outside the local and regionalmarket. xxvi This means that themedium-size distribution channels arethe most used. At times distributionappears to be somewhat inadequatesince in many cases, contrary toexpectations, quality products can notbe found in local shops.There are 56 publicly-run large winecellars in Italy, mainly concentrated inthe central and northern regions, thelargest number being in Piedmont,while there are very few in theMarches, Umbria and Lazio.In recent years, the development ofthe Internet has offered smallproducers more opportunities forselling their products (e-commerce). AWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 145