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Our journey into italian post-covid foodservice, to discover the benefits and solutions offered by the waveco® machine thanks to its innovative technology of induced maturation©, led us to Carsoli (Aq), where we met chef Valerio Centofanti, owner together with his family of restaurant “L’Angolo d’Abruzzo”. The Centofanti family has always focused on a cuisine based on the quality of local raw materials and on the seasonality of the products his territory offers. Chef Valerio keeps this tradition alive by offering an essential yet innovative cuisine, thanks to his new waveco® machine that helped him improve his work and offer his clients dishes of the highest quality that tell about the ancient and infinite flavours of the land of Abruzzo.

He was, just like everybody else, far from his customers but he, unlike many of his colleagues – as he reports – was “lucky because my restaurant is in my municipality of residence, so I could go to my workplace even during lockdown; I took advantage of the lockdown to experiment and find new culinary solutions with my waveco®, solutions that were at the heart of our restart. However, going back to work was a powerful emotion.”.

Of course chef Valerio Centofanti took advantage of the forced break to deepen his knowledge of the machine and, as he reports himself, “this period was a stimulus to organize what would come next; I was able to improve my knowledge, especially concerning the preparation techniques with the waveco® machine, that has proved to be an extremely valuable ally for the restart of my restaurant, which luckily was positive: we are a well known reality on this territory, and our usual customers came, a great pleasure and a stimulus to keep going and pursue our growth.”.

His gastronomy is closely related to the territory and, as he told us, going back to work meant overcoming many difficulties connected to the purchase of raw material, a factor that caused a drastic change in his menu; something made possible also thanks to the waveco® machine: “In my restaurant I use only zero-mile raw material, all my products are of the highest quality, so it was – and is – very hard to find all these food products I used to use in my kitchen. That’s why I had to drastically change my menu, shortening it and re-elaborating many of my dishes. In this process the waveco® machine was crucial and by using it I was able to enhance all the raw material I had at hand. I can frankly say that before lockdown the dishes prepared with waveco® were served together with other delicacies, while now they are the main protagonists”.

The machine was a means for the rebirth of his business and allowed him – as he told us – to adopt new culinary solutions that were the engine that propelled the restart: “The break in the activity allowed me to deepen my knowledge of the machine, which I have always used in a limited way, due to the huge amount of work, or only for certain preparations. I used the machine just for certain vegetables, for meats such as sheep or mutton and fruit. Today, I use it for every kind of preparation I have in my menu, but more importantly I was able to improve and reshape the whole process of meat tendering.

We serve to our clients – explains the chef – a sheep rib that, before covid-19, we would purchase according to our restaurant’s needs from our local farmers. We are talking about a tough meat cut, but with waveco® we can incredibly tenderize it, so much that we can then proceed by briefly cooking it on the grill, and then serve to our customers an extremely juicy and tasty dish.

Today, things have changed: we still purchase from local farmers, but in bigger amounts, so that we can save on the price. At my restaurant, thanks to this machine, I can better organise my work putting all the different meat cuts in single-portion bags that are then matured and after that are stored in the fridge. Thanks to the increase in shelf life I can use meat when I need it without altering the quality I usually offer to my clients. That’s because before lockdown the main concern was just the tenderness of our meat, while now the benefits the machine allows me to achieve are multiple.”.

Chef Centofanti found in waveco® a valuable ally with which he could reorganise his work, change his gastronomic offer and, as he tells us, reduce the costs of his business: “No doubt the added value that waveco® brought to my restaurant is the considerable reduction in food cost. This forced break and the uncertainty due to the market trend has inevitably had repercussions on the management costs of a restaurant business. Luckily for us, thanks to this machine, we could reorganise work in a more profitable way, reducing preparation time, considerably cutting energy costs and more importantly saving on raw material: we can now purchase a greater quantity of food, thus saving on price, and thanks to the focused ultrasound technique of induced maturation© we can increase its shelf life without altering the organoleptic and nutritional values. My product, already in portions, can be stored for much longer in the fridge – therefore reducing food waste as well – and is ready to be used for a customer’s order.”.

Before we move on and say goodbye to chef Centofanti, we asked him too to offer a thought or some advice for his colleagues about the waveco® technology, especially concerning this long phase of restart. These are his words: “Thewaveco® machine changed for the better my work routine. For this reason, and the many benefits it offers, I advise my chef colleagues to use it. It’s a new technology and, just like everything new, it may raise some concerns at the very beginning, but I assure you that once you use it in your kitchen, there’s no coming back. Every food, every kind of preparation will be based on the machine; because if done with waveco®, the result will be a lot better.

There is no machine like this one that can ensure both sanitization and an increase in the shelf life of the product. Just for this reason I think using waveco® is a great benefit, both for my job and the safety of my customers.”.

Thank you chef, and enjoy your work.

For those who would love to enjoy a taste of the delicacies prepared with waveco® by chef Valerio Centofanti, we suggest to book a table at his restaurant “L’Angolo d’Abruzzo” in Aldo Moro Square 7/8 – 67061 Carsoli (AQ); Tel. 0863997429.