With the world of catering closed or open in fits and starts, even the world of food journalism has had to reinvent itself and look for new ways to tell about a sector in crisis but still full of ideas and proposals. So it was for Valentina Dirindin, freelance journalist who collaborates with various Turin and national newspapers, especially food & travel, starting with Dissapore.
How did you deal with Dissapore and the other newspapers with which you collaborate this pandemic and the consequent great difficulty in the catering sector? Have you in any way changed your usual narrative? Have you made any particular initiatives to tell about this period?
“The narrative has necessarily changed. The bread of those who deal with food is catering, and with the catering closed we had to find alternatives of content. In some cases we have opted, like many others, to try the delivery services offered by the restaurant. With other publications, on the other hand, we chose not to review a proposal that we felt was somehow "limping", because of a (hopefully) temporary nature, and we had to work on something else. More interviews, more news and inevitably fewer reviews. In some cases it was also stimulating to go in search of new and not obvious contents, but now we really want to go back to sit in the restaurant ».
From your point of view as a journalist in the sector, how have food and catering companies (food companies, but also chefs, restaurants etc) changed communication in this period? Are there any initiatives that particularly impressed you and that you wanted to highlight?
«Communication, in this period perhaps as never before, has been essential. And it has largely moved to the web and social media, which have absorbed many hours of our forced home time. Just think of the festive occasions we spent: how many of us have bought panettone, doves and Easter eggs from their smartphones or PCs? In general, in catering, I appreciated the inventiveness of those who worked hard not to be idle, and there are delivery formulas that were also fun, but I repeat: now I want to go back to the restaurant. A winning example, probably, is that of Bentoteca Milano, which with delivery has reasoned in different terms, not just local, periodically transferring its proposal to many Italian cities ».
How did your readers react? Have you noticed a greater sensitivity to certain issues related to the world of food? In your opinion, has there been an increase in attention to this sector?
"For the web magazines I collaborate with, there was probably an increase, but it also depended on the fact that we have all been more on social media and online in recent months at home. As for attention, there is always a lot of attention to food: of course, perhaps today, inevitably, we are looking for recipes to make at home rather than advice on restaurants to go to ».
After the pandemic, and when we can finally talk about a restart, how do you think communication in the food sector will change? Which channels should be privileged and which do you think have had their day?
“I wouldn't be so drastic to say that some channels have had their day. Obviously everything will depend on how long all this will last, but one thing is now certain and clear to everyone: much of what we do, let's say, communicate, has now moved online, and from this we will never go back completely ".
Do you have any future projects in the pipeline that you want to anticipate related to your journalistic collaborations or more generally to your professional life?
"Next Christmas we will be back with ToGether, the e-commerce of gift boxes of great Piedmontese excellence: a project that gave me a lot of satisfaction in a period when we all needed new ideas and stimuli".
