Veronica Pagani and Gaetano Spadoni: sustainable restaurant project must prioritize organic, fair trade, or zero-mile products and prioritize waste reduction
Ristorante Locale, the hundred percent green offer from Lombardy
Veronica Pagani and Gaetano Spadoni’s bet with restaurant Locale education and banned intensive practice Sustainable catering has become essential in the current green era. But what is it really?
It is a certain management approach that aims both to reduce negative impacts on the environment and on the other hand to have socio-economic benefits, starting with the transparency of the menu, the products that are used, the preparation of food and respect for the rhythm of the seasons.
Sustainability is becoming a variable in catering that can make a difference in the choice of dining experience. In fact, today’s consumer is highly motivated to consume and purchase sustainable products, thus wanting to contribute to the overall sustainability of the economic and social cycle.
The sustainable restaurant project must prioritize organic, fair trade, or zero-mile products, prioritize waste reduction, the gradual introduction of the plastic-free dining model, and finally information, communication, and environmental education, which must be promoted by the staff in order to engage customers in good environmental practices.
The Local Restaurant by Veronica Pagani and Gaetano Spadoni
All this is followed to the letter by the restaurant Locale owned by Veronica Pagani and Gaetano Spadoni and located a few steps from the Arco della Pace in Parco Sempione, Milan.
«I have been doing marketing and communication for as long as I can remember, and having had several clients in the food business, it is a world I have grown to love», says Veronica Pagani in explaining the genesis of Locale’s project.
Passionate about cooking and the excellence of her home region, Lombardy, and with the pandemic in full swing, Veronica decided to set up a project that was related to catering. At the end of the lockdown she met and worked with Gaetano Spadoni, a restaurateur, with whom she started their ideal restaurant.
Locale’s guidelines between producers and transparency
Intuitable from the name of the restaurant, Locale collaborates only with small and artisanal producers in the Lombardy region who are no more than 100 km away from Milan. The only rule is therefore the exclusive use of ingredients from the Milanese hinterland, excluding a few concessions such as coffee.
Locale uses the short supply chain, preferring direct contact with producers who have a sustainable, territorial development vision and who do not perform any kind of intensive practices, but follow the rhythm of the seasons and what nature has to offer.
«We try to work with those who have a non-industrial vision», says Veronica Pagani, «so also with larger producers who have a sustainable vision and territorial development». Among their main producers are Cascine Santa Brera and Cirenaica, Pascol-a structure that consorts small farmers with the goal of offering quality products while limiting environmental impact. «The farms selected for us by Pascol», says Pagani, «are all extensive, have animals that do at least ninety days of grazing per year, and are all certified».
Locale: a short supply chain with raw materials
Locale’s other producers include Fiorida, a Valtellina reality with a short supply chain in which raw materials are processed in the company’s in-house dairy and slaughterhouse and finished products are sold in its own Sales Outlet and online Shop, Il Boscasso, Via Lattea, the Agricultural Consortium of the Ticino Park-all of which adopt agronomic techniques with low environmental impact-and Ferdi Wild, whose philosophy the restaurant espouses.
With all the producers both Veronica and Gaetano have a personal relationship and initially, in discovering some of them, they proceeded by sampling, and «compared to the first selection we made, with sampling we changed and even reduced a lot». Thus, the Local restaurant’s search for products is done through sampling, simple internet searches, but not only. Customers also play a key role, recommending new producers through word of mouth.
«People have responded well to our format, everyone has something to offer us or anecdotes to tell», Veronica says. This is helped by the fact that many of the producers do reception themselves, like agritourism’s.
The culinary proposal: the seasonality of cultures
Locale’s culinary proposal lies in the middle between tradition and experimentation but is not particularly elaborate. All preparations, including semi-finished products, are created by the restaurant itself. The menu used to vary every week, causing quite a few logistical problems, and to justify printing costs, to date it remains on the books for at least a month, creating a much more stable menu.
By offering a range that follows the seasonality of cultures and especially by choosing producers who do not use any intensive practices, the Local restaurant has been affected by this summer’s drought, often struggling in receiving produce. «We don’t manage to follow the seasonality, but the week», says Pagani, «For us the season is complicated because we are in Lombardy. This year, which has been dry, farmers have struggled a lot».
Culinary experiences also follow sustainability, such as the Sunday summer picnic. Initially as a formula to fill lunch-since the restaurant was only open in the evening-delivery and to encourage being outdoors for citizens and others. «We wanted to create a new and different experience done in the city, usually if you think of the picnic the countryside or outside the city environment comes to mind. We brought it inside the city, in Simplon Park».
Aperitifs, consisting of appetizers such as charcuterie board, prosecco or beers
The picnic consists of six different formulas to choose from composing the wicker basket «always found within a hundred kilometers», asserts Veronica. By reserving and choosing for how many people, the baskets come with all the necessary necessities, with glass glasses, cutlery from the service and ceramic plates created by a producer whose workshop is on the Naviglio, so one hundred percent km zero.
Formulas range from aperitifs, consisting of appetizers such as charcuterie board, prosecco or beers – even the beverage follows the logic of one hundred kilometers – to the full basket consisting of five courses, which can also be vegetarian or children.
«The strong point of this experience is definitely the total absence of waste and garbage, people bring everything back to us inside the basket so at the park everything remains clean; that’s why we chose to give as little paper and plastic as possible», explains Gaetano.
Locale
For fall and winter instead, the Locale restaurant is focusing on a sharing experiment: Sunday lunches. A long table shared among diners where typical and traditional dishes are offered. «The dishes that make you think of Italian Sundays such as lasagna, roast, boiled meat, and much more», explains Veronica Pagani.
