In the future, Italian restaurants have to fulfil defined standards to be able to call themselves "Italian". Strangely enough, up to now, there has been no form of protection or classification of "brand Italy" in the restaurant business.
Recently, DNV Certification signed a contract with the Italian restaurant's association. The project targets approximately 60,000 Italian restaurants outside Italy, even though no more than 10,000-15,000 are truly Italian restaurants.
DNV has participated in the study and design of a new quality standard that will determine whether Italian restaurants abroad offer genuine Italian cuisine to their guests.
This work is done together with the Italian Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry, the Italian Trade Commission (ICE), the Association of the Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad (Assocameraestero) and the Italian restaurants' association (Associazione Internazionale Ristoranti d'Italia (ARDI)).
First of all, the technical standard requires the use of authentic Italian ingredients, although deviations will be allowed from country to country. Mostly Italian wine in the cellar, a head chef who has been formally trained in Italian cuisine or has spent at least six months training at a restaurant in Italy, and at least one Italian-speaking waiter, are among the other criteria.
On February 28, a pilot project with the voluntary participation of more than 50 restaurants in Belgium started up. A number of Italian restaurants in Luxembourg then joined the project.
The next step over the following 3-4 years is the certification of the truly Italian restaurants in France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and then moving on to the capitals of the rest of Central Europe and then Scandinavia.
The aim of the project is to create an international Italian food and wine circuit promoting the Italian identity.