GICO’s 50 years: The 2000s

This new millennium has been hallmarked by a series of huge changes in terms of politics, finance, technology and customs. From adopting the European single currency to the launch of the first smart phones, and tragic, epochal events like the attack on the Twin Towers.

GICO AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE DOUBLE CROWN BURNER

At this time, in 2004 to be precise, our company received an important acknowledgement from the Ministry for Production. GICO had just launched an innovative solution for gas burners that for the first time in the history of professional kitchen equipment had environmental issues at heart.

The GICO double crown burner featured an exclusive system of secondary air intake on a central crown incorporating a special technology, which ensured extremely low emissions of carbon monoxide (a very harmful substance for the environment and people) while still guaranteeing cooking performance superior to that of the other appliances on the market.

It was a highly functional solution that not only ensured elevated returns, but also considerably lowered consumption, while raising safety levels in use exponentially.  It is yet another confirmation that written into GICO’s DNA is care about protecting the environment and people.

NEW TRENDS IN ITALIAN CUISINE

In the first ten years of the new millennium, Italy was awash with the new trend for putting cooking on show.  There was a plethora of cookery shows, formats developed in the USA and gradually disseminated throughout the world, and cooking blogs and video recipes began to flourish, leading to the chef becoming a sort of ‘showman’.

No longer ‘artisans’ who work behind the scenes, cooks were increasingly ‘artists’ who processed raw materials with quality equipment to produce works of art.  In this period, artistic presentation and plating up became of prime importance.

Due to time and space restrictions dictated by the digital platforms on which they are transmitted, the new ‘TV-chefs’ have developed a need for ever more compact instruments that ensure high performance and are hygienically safe and quickly cleaned during the show, complete with all the equipment in a single cooking suite.

To support this new trend, with its 30 years’ experience and a well-stocked catalogue with six different lines of modular kitchen equipment, in 2003 GICO designed and produced the first cooking suite.  It comprised an attractively designed, high performance island with a single top containing all the functions conveniently to hand.  A solution easy to keep perfectly clean and tidy, with a place for everything and everything in its place, in spite of the reduced amount of space.