Category Archives: DESITA

Chi vincerà il Foodservice Award Italy 2015?

English version here


Qual è il significato di istituire un premio per la miglior catena di ristorazione italiana?

E quale quello di parteciparvi?

Beh, se si trattasse solo di farsi un po’ di pubblicità, credo esistano altri sistemi, più diretti e con meno incognite.

Mi sono fatto un’idea personale che mi ha convinto ad essere coinvolto come giudice al FOODSERVICE AWARD ITALY 20015

Norman Cescut -BLOG-Foodservice Award Italy

Credo che il punto sia il miglioramento continuo. L’essere sempre sul pezzo, ovvero sul mercato.

So bene che è il pubblico a sancire il successo di una formula e non certo un tizio con una paletta in mano, ma ammiro molto chi si mette in gioco e sembra dirti: “ecco, io sono questo, questo è il mio mondo, questa la mia voce, tu che ne vedi tante, che sei un tecnico, un professionista del settore, che ne pensi?”

E partire da lì per crescere ancora, per trovare spunti, per misurarsi.

Sono, quindi, onorato di essere stato scelto per questo ruolo nella categoria APPEAL INTERNAZIONALE, insieme ad altri professionisti che stimo molto.

Sarà difficile valutare, ma ovviamente cercheremo di farlo al meglio.

Follow the three cyrcles

I am currently working on a new challenging project, at DESITA, merging some of the latest food trends.

Food Retail scenario is changing and we are surfing the big wave.

After months passed studying the market and the food products related to this awsome project, I came across to the following article.

You will not read about the project (next time) or about something trendy but you should read it to understand yourself, if you wish to live in a better way:

“The universe really is amazing. There are cycles in everything in the universe. There are cycles in weather, the seasons, the economy, wars, moon, sun, animal populations, geological formations, sea, physics, clocks and a million others I don’t have room to mention.
But did you know that your body also has a cycle?
And I am not talking about the obvious, nor am I talking just to the ladies here. This information is important for Everyone, so listen up! If you are not familiar with body cycles yet, so much is about to make sense…
Your body runs on 3 eight-hour cycles per day. Formally referred to as the Circadian Rhythms, and known for thousands of years via Ayurvedic teachings, to me understanding and applying these body clock principles has been the reason behind enjoying easy digestion, keeping my weight from fluctuating, never experiencing fatigue and maximizing my metabolism.

These are the cycles:

4AM-12PM Elimination
12PM-8PM Appropriation
8PM-4AM Assimilation

During the hours between 4AM and 12PM, your body is in the Elimination Cycle. It never stops to work on your digestion and you can still eat or drink or whatever at this time, but understanding that this is the period most important for cleansing and releasing toxins (‘Eliminating’), we can make the right food choices if we are going to eat. It is best to stick to liquids and most hydrating living foods, as we let our body shed the toxins (think how you wake up tired, sweaty, headachie and with bad breath- all are signs of detox symptoms).

So if you do choose to eat during this period, it is important to go for anything that will require minimal digestion and supFreshiiGreenport this cleansing cycle, such as fresh fruit or green juices.

This is why you often hear experts refer to breakfast as ‘the most important meal of the day’, exactly so you can make a careful choice on what’s light on digestion, not so you can eat the most gigantic feast. You are breaking the fast (break-fast), so do it right or proper elimination won’t get a chance.

“The elimination cycle is without question your greatest ally in the preservation of health and prevention of disease”; “If a blood test was to be taken every hour for 24 hours, it would show that the bloodstream is most heavily burdened with the by-products of metabolism during the hours between 4am-12noon, indicating the stepped up elimination cycle, because it is the blood that carries waste material to the four channels of elimination: bowels, bladder, lungs, and skin”- Harvey & Marilyn Diamond, Fit for Life

During the hours between 12PM and 8PM, your body is in the Appropriation Cycle. During this period, we are most awake, active, present and therefore efficient at digesting, metabolizing and burning through the majority of our heavily concentrated foods. This is why the majority of meals (lunch, dinner and snacks) also occur during this cycle. The most important thing to do during this period however IS NOT to be dictated by the clock or so called ‘norms’ of mealtime, when we are too starving to care what we have for lunch and tend to shove so much food down ourselves too quickly, that by the time the body registers what happened, it is too late and we overeat, get bloated and ‘too tired’ to digest. The most important thing to do then IS to eat only when hungry and in smaller portions, so you give your body plenty of breaks and chances to break down through the food with the least required effort, so it reserves the energy for everything else you need doing, not merely wasting it on digesting your meals.

During the hours between 8PM and 4AM, your body is in the Assimilation Cycle. This is the time you are most likely to be relaxed or sleeping. This period is when all the ‘assimilating’ or absorbing of nutrients and minerals from your food occurs and gets transported to your organs, bones and cells via the blood. It is when all the rebuilding, renewing and healing takes place. It makes sense to eat dinner early, so that the foods you eat are digested and out of the stomach in preparation for this phase. As all the goodness gets drawn from the food for you to strengthen, the remains get ready for Elimination, the start of the next cycle all over again.

Freshii-WarriorBowl

Try this for yourself and be mindful of these three cycles for 10 days. Once you learn to pay attention to them, it will become second nature and your body will reap the bounty of benefits.

I wish to thank Tanya Alekseeva for the above great article!

Food, time and business. All good!

Yesterday I had the possibility to do what I like the most; combining business with pleasure.

2013-09-28 12.56.08

I was meeting with a very important and great person to discuss about business and we choose the lunch time instead of any other time in the day in order to relax a bit and not to be bored by the usual meeting in the office. Yes, nothing so new or special maybe but trust me if I tell you that sometimes combining good food, good persons and good times, it really makes your day.

We went to one of my favorite fish restaurant right on the beach which is luckily not observing the season timing. It’s always open and with fresh or quality food. As you can see from the above photo, shot upon arrival, the beach was almost empty and the general atmosphere was really quite. Perfect temperature to eat outside.

Well, we ordered “Passatelli with seafood”. Tasting, light and delicious. And we start talking about business. No wine was requested just to keep the mind clear and to pay full attention to the important subjects.

Yes, one day I will move my office in a restaurant or in a coffee shop.

So, at the end of the story, in few very pleasant hours I’ve been commitment for one project in Canada and one in France. What’s first?

When good food, good persons and good times makes also good business.

Sostenibilità: la mia verità

Si, la verità. Nient’altro che la verità. Perlomeno la mia, ovvio.

2006_Sustainability_Conf_logo

L’idea mi venne in mente lo scorso gennaio, quando alle prese con la presentazione per il mio intervento al TEDxBocconi, ho dovuto ripercorrere a ritroso più di 3 lunghi anni. Al TED, avrei dovuto parlare delle mie esperienze professionali in relazione con la sostenibilità, partendo dal progetto di ECOFFEE. Chi ha parlato in pubblico, senza essere un oratore e chi ha domestichezza con le presentazioni in Power Point, sa benissimo quanto sia difficile riassumere e racchiudere più di 3 anni di esperienze in 15 minuti e 15 slides a disposizione. Se poi, come detto nel post relativo, oltre all’emozione, ci si mette anche l’influenza …

Comunque, l’idea maturata nel tempo, è quella di scrivere per benino le mie esperienze, i progetti, le persone e le aziende incontrate e tutto quello che mi è accaduto nel bene e nel male, fino a questi giorni. In poche parole, esplicitare al massimo il mio intervento al TED, raccontando aneddoti e dettagli. Si, come detto, nel bene e nel male.

Perchè? Perchè la sostenibilità, quella vera, non è quella che si pensa o quella che si legge sui giornali o su internet. Non è quella che vi propinano le aziende dagli slogan tutti “green oriented” o i manager dai titoli inventati e posticci. Probabilmente non sarà nemmeno quella che vi racconterò io. Starà a voi giudicare, ma vi assicuro che scoprirete cose interessanti.

Quindi? Se avrete pazienza e voglia di leggere il mio punto di vista, prossimamente pubblicherò “svariati capitoli” sulle mie esperienze personali e la sostenibilità. Spero di riuscire ad essere abbastanza costante, perchè fino a febbraio ho già l’agenda abbastanza fitta di impegni importanti e viaggi all’estero e soprattutto, spero vi interessi.

Un ultima premessa: il mio blog è impostato sia per l’italiano che per l’inglese, a seconda di cosa voglio pubblicare e del pubblico a cui mi rivolgo. I post sulla sostenibilità saranno in italiano. Capirete da soli il perchè.

Buona lettura.

Business Retail Tour e fiera del Franchising di Dubai

Vi piacerebbe sviluppare il vostro business in un mercato in crescita?

Se pensate che il vostro Franchising  sia adatto al mercato degli Emirati Arabi Uniti e/o quello del Medio Oriente in generale, la prima esplorazione da compiere è proprio nella città più in fermento del mondo: Dubai.

burj-dubai-copyright-som-s

Se stavate pensando di andarrci per prendere i primi contatti con il mercato locale, vi sarete sicuramente chiesti:

– Come faccio ad ottimizzare la mia permanenza e di conseguenza i miei costi?

Come faccio ad organizzare le visite e gli incontri dall’Italia?

– Chi può darmi strumenti ed informazioni per prendere la decisione giusta?

Riuscirò a conoscere gli investitori locali?

L’importante occasione è in concomitanza con la 5° Franchise UAE EXPO, la Fiera Internazionale del Franchising e del Retail, di cui DESITA è promotore esclusivo per l’Italia, che si svolgerà a Dubai il 25 e 26 settembre prossimi.

Recenti studi hanno dimostrato che il 97% dei fallimenti è derivato da una mancanza di attenzione verso i mutamenti del mercato. Questo significa che lavorare in un determinato settore senza conoscerne e anticiparne in maniera approfondita le dinamiche evolutive espone il business a rischi sostanziali, fino a minacciarne la profittabilità e la sopravvivenza. Chiaramente questi rischi risultano accentuati in un periodo di crisi. Chi desidera superare questo brutto periodo deve innanzi tutto lavorare su un elemento di discontinuità culturale, modificare il proprio approccio al mercato.

DESITA, società di consulenza e progettazione di spazi Retail con forte know-how nel settore della ristorazione e nello sviluppo Franchising, presente a Dubai da oltre 10 anni, in collaborazione con Milano Retail Tour, l’unico format rivolto alle aziende per esplorare le tendenze emergenti nei luoghi del Retail milanese ed internazionale, vi propone un viaggio alla scoperta del cambiamento in atto nel mondo del Retail di Dubai, nonché la possibilità di incontrare selezionati investitori arabi, tramite meeting B2B dedicati ed esclusivi.

Per scaricare la presentazione: Business Retail Tour

Per maggiori informazioni, scrivere a info@desita.it

dubai_masterplan

“How to make everyday a sustainable one”

TEDxBocconiU – ReThink: ReInvent the world around you!

2013-02-23 11.19.21First of all, I wish to thank all TEDxBocconiU team for the great event organised and in particular a BIG thanks to Ivana Istochka and Eraldo Cavalli.

I have been one of the 14 selected speakers of TEDxBocconiU and had the pleasure to connect with very interesting and inspiring people from all over the world.

That day I was very sick with temperature and a big cold; even the adrenaline was soft due the very bad feeling. What a bad luck. Invited to that special and prestigious stage and not be able to be at 100%. Trust me, I couldn’t slept the night before. Nightmares.

It was February and Milano was freezing while expecting the snow but thanks to the good marketing actions, lot of people came to the event.

In my speech I’ve tried to summarize three years of activities related to sustainability: the ECOFFEE project, couple of case histories on my daily business, the Progetto ParCO2 project and the Eco Mindful Message Attached t-shirts project. It has been very hard to squeeze everything in about 15 minutes.

Hope you will enjoy the video and the speech in terms of contents and the related meaning. 

And some nice photos.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

La sostenibilità in pratica (nel Franchising)

Intervista pubblicata su AZ Franchising di maggio 2013.

Ringrazio i colleghi di AZ Franchising, Media partner di Iref Italia, per la gentile e sempre professionale collaborazione.

la sostenibilità in pratica

In-store marketing and it’s influence on customer spending

Two days ago, I made my second speech of the year.

After the prestigious stage of TED, at the Bocconi University, this was the time to perform at BIFEX, the Beirut International Franchising Forum and Exhibition.

Professional people from allover the GCC countries but also some from oversea, attended to this very well organised event by Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal, to share the Franchising philosophy, new trends and related businesses opportunities.

I wish to thanks the greatness Lebanese Franchise Association people for the very kind invitation and I hope to continue our cooperation as per our talks, checking the possibility of twinning Lebanon and Italy, therefore the LFA with IREF Italia.

For those who couldn’t attended, I’m gladly sharing here my speech presentation. Any questions or feedback are highly appreciated.

2013-04-18 07.02.32

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

15 days of travels and food around the world

Last 12th of February, with a colleague of mine, I went to Ljubljana to meet some potential clients willing to develop a new food concept project. It was snowing and as soon as we entered in Slovenia, the panorama changed. slovenia0

Beautiful. Striking.

We arrived at the perfect time to make the check-in at the hotel and to have some free time to enjoy Ljubljana downtown. Have you been there? You should, its beautiful! Again the time was perfect to have an aperitif. We went to one of the most beautiful wine bar I ever seen, the Movia. The atmosphere you can brief there is totally brought from the vineyards. We had Movia Cabernet Sauvignon. Outstanding ! Dinner at River House.

vinoteka_lj

On the 14th, I flew to Madrid to meet an architectural and engineering group for Retail and Food & Beverages projects. Their great services are complementary with those of DESITA, therefore we met to find a mutual benefit business collaboration agreement. We succeed! Later on, we went to visit some of their projects. Dinner at La Tagliatella an impressive franchising concept.

Presentazione standard1

Last week I was in Dubai to attend to Gulfood. I was there together with FCSI EAME colleagues to guard the booth at the exhibition. We have been successful. Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI) is the premier association promoting professionalism in foodservice and hospitality consulting. With over 1300 members in over 46 countries, FCSI members offer a wide range of consulting services including concept development, feasibility studies, food safety, design, marketing, operations and training. FCSI is changing a lot in its structure, philosophy and mission and we are all proud of this huge effort made by the Board of Directors. The website is brand new like the “foodservice consultant” magazine that provides authoritative insight, opinion and intelligence to help foodservice professionals keep in touch with the tings that matter.

It was nice to meet with clients, colleagues and old friends.

Dubai-Burj-KhalifaFor an important meeting I went to the Armani Hotel at Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It was my second time there after its opening and to meet with my guest, I went to the coffee shop in the lobby. Time was nice so we decided to share an Italian bottle of wine. With all my surprise, the young waiter served us the ordered white wine with apparent difficulty and … the white wine wasn’t cold and not even fresh. Unbelievable.

We pointed out the regrettable inconvenience and the waiter brought us immediately a new bottle … with the same warm temperature. We had to call the waiter back and ask at least for an ice bucket and wait for a more pleasant wine temperature.

The fact is that I paid that bottle like 70 Euro and I didn’t receive any good service. It’s a shame as we were in THE Location. Now I probably understand why the f&b manager didn’t reply to my emails last year when I had my dinner at Mediterraneo. Beautiful atmosphere but very normal food. I think Armani Hotel has a lack in training human resources. Mr. Giorgio, please do something!

While I was in Dubai, I’ve been invited from a Sheikh friend of mine to attend the Peru Food Festival at Madinat Jumeirah’s Souk Amphitheater. What a surprise the Peruvian food. It’s just great! And it’s considered on the the next food trend worldwide.

20130212153341Kzns

So hurry up my friends, let’s organize a trip to Peru and all its wonders. Ready?

Well, I can’t write about everything happened because 15 days are quite long and things are many. I hope you enjoyed these few facts.

Traveling and sharing time with great people while having good food. Yes, that’s life!

Have you ever had lunch with gelato?

Yes, I do!

I like it very much and most of the times I use to eat it instead of having a complete lunch. It’s my favorite cold fast food. 35

I have already written something about gelato, especially if related to sustainability or social responsibility.  Today I wish to bring you with me through a path to discover the gelato world and something interesting around it. Are you ready?

Next Saturday, Sigep will start for its 34° edition with a very busy events agenda, while whiting 14 halls and about 850 exhibitors, you can learn about the companies news and the sector trends. Of course, gelato tasting will be included. Yes, because living a five days exhibition makes you very tired and thirsty due to lots of talks so, what is better than a refreshment with a delicious gelato? What’s your favorite flavors? I go for classic nocciola and pistacchio.

This year Sigep will host ABtech, the world of baking and the Franchising area of Iref Italia the European Franchise & Partnership Network Organisation. Two events that will surely boost the entire exhibition, because visitors can now find really everything from row materials to equipment, from furniture to ready concept for all the sectors: gelato, pastry, chocolate, coffee, bakery, confectionery, bread, pizza & pasta.

Well, I will be attending Sigep for five days as I will be busy in the Franchising area of Iref Italia as I am the National Coordinator but as far as I will have many clients visiting the show, I will surely have the time to look around and enjoy a big gelato.

Please do note forget to come on Monday afternoon because we have organised a seminar with great speaker as the Senior Consultant of Subway International BV, the Franchising Senior Manager of McDonald´s Italia and the Environmental Manager of McDonald´s Italia; The title of the seminar is: Franchise networks and Sustainability: the experience of the big brands. Network development experience, and focus on sustainability. Interesting isn’t it?

We are still all a bit child, so what’s life without gelato?