Hotel food service. Interview with the director of Villa Aretusi reception services, Giuseppe Sportelli

We could say that Giuseppe Sportelli was born and grew up in the food service trade.  From Gioia del Colle, son of two restaurateurs, he chose to cultivate his passion in several food service formats and hotels throughout Italy, specialising in guest reception and dining room services.

Nominated best Italian Maître in 2002 and Maître of Maîtres in 2005, Sportelli took part in the 2007 world competition, where he came fourth.  He is now the Emilia-Romagna contact for AMAHR – the Italian Maitres Association, Hotel and Restaurant.

Today Giuseppe Sportelli is the director of reception services at Villa Aretusi, Bologna, a structure he has been running since 2010, ‘four-handed’ with his friend Executive Chef Alessandro Panichi, who we had the pleasure of interviewing in 2020.

Initially a trattoria with a large conference hall, Villa Aretusi has evolved through a project that has made it a multi-purpose structure: three professional kitchens for the same number of food service points, open to the hotel’s guests as well as local visitors and tourists.

With the aid of our area dealer Nanni-Fa, for Villa Aretusi GICO has created a customised project to meet the precise demands of the client for two of the hotel kitchens.

What’s the advantage of having a number of food service points in Villa Aretusi?

<<Today Villa Aretusi is organised with three different food service points:

• Gourmet restaurant ‘Sotto L’Arco’ 

• a traditional Emilian trattoria 

• a ‘Banqueting Hall’ for receptions and gala occasions

The three kitchens coexist and complete each other, giving us the opportunity to offer our guests a wider range of services and choices, indoors and outdoors. 

For us, a number of food service points means mainly two things: upselling on the same customer, who, for example, chooses Villa Aretusi for its traditional cuisine and often stays, or returns, for a gourmet meal or a reception. The more front doors for new guests, the greater the possibility of intercepting those who seek a service, for receptions, for tradition and for gourmet meals.>>

 

What are the plusses that lead to choosing a kitchen, or in this case kitchens? 

<<The needs of Villa Aretusi were clear right from the start. Before planning the current layout, we assessed the possibility of having a single kitchen to serve the three restaurants. But this would have penalised us, in terms of both space optimisation and consumption. The organisation of workflow in the kitchen is fundamental if we want to work well and reduce waste to a minimum. 

With GICO we made the decision to plan a bespoke modular system for our gourmet restaurant and renovate the traditional trattoria kitchen. The two systems are separate from the third kitchen, which is dedicated to receptions and banquets.

In my opinion, the choice of kitchen must be entrusted to the person who runs it, in other words the Chef. The proprietors of Villa Aretusi agreed with me and gave Alessandro Panichi a free hand to oversee the project. 

Panichi and I have known each other for over 20 years and we work together on all aspects of running Villa Aretusi. For this reason, although I was not involved personally, I can say that the choice of a GICO kitchen was based on the great functionality of the equipment, the solid, robust materials of which it is made, and maximum efficiency with important reductions in consumption.>>

 

In your opinion, what is the role of food service in the hotel world?

<<I’m convinced that food service for hotels is growing rapidly.  Having a restaurant in a hotel is a huge advantage because it can encourage guests to stay longer and purchase other services.

However, a hotel restaurant must always attract customers other than guests and have something that makes them more customer-friendly and different from other restaurants in the area, to draw in local custom. 

I believe a hotel restaurant should always reflect its territory, so that tourists who choose to dine there can discover the authentic food and wine of the place they are visiting.

In the end, for the success of these projects, it is essential to have qualified staff who are able to meet customers’ needs and offer the best service possible.>>

 

Our thanks to director Giuseppe Sportelli for agreeing to this interview and for the ‘food for thought’ he has provided on ‘Hotel food service’, as discussed in the previous posts on our blog, and which we will continue to talk about in our next posts.

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