Sweet and sweet stories: when the local becomes theater

by lorenzo in The Showcase
12 May 201716 January 2023

Sweet and sweet stories: when the local becomes theater

Entering a bar, pastry shop, ice cream parlor or establishment of any kind constitutes a unique experience, always new and different, even when the place is apparently the same. Every time our mood changes and that of the other patrons who, in spite of themselves, share a few moments with us, smells, colors and tastes change, thoughts change and the atmosphere changes. Sometimes the gesture of a person who smiles at us moving a little to let us in, the laughter of the people at the nearby table or the greeting of someone on the other side of the counter are enough to give new tones and shades strong> to our daily life. What remains constant is the place: the local which acts both as the engine and catalyst of the situation and emotions and as their spectator and which, at the same time, is the background to many stories that go on stage, intertwining, transforming and becoming new. Like in a theater.

Wanting to develop and deepen this comparison, we can attribute three points of view to the venue or, to remain in scenic jargon, three different roles. Let’s see them!

#1 – The venue as a leading actor

As in a theatre, in bars, patisseries, ice cream parlors and clubs, every day faces approach and move away and eyes meet, cross and tell each other: both moments go on stage simple and everyday habits, such as the croissant-and-cappuccino in the morning, and the emotions and feelings of special occasions, such as friendship and the joy of an aperitif or a cup of tea in company, the affection and serenity of the choice of pastries for Sunday lunch, the love and complicity of a cup of ice cream with two teaspoons. A multitude of actors – supporting characters and extras who take turns on the stage of the bar or pastry shop. The scenography is made up of the furnishing elements, the showcases for displaying the products, the tables, the atmosphere and the mood that the dialogue between these elements and the context help to define and characterize.

The club is no longer a simple place, but becomes the real protagonist of the show, the catalyst around which the stories, events and emotions of all the other secondary characters: the bartender, the pastry chef, the ice cream maker, the customer, the person passing through.

The value and quality of the venue-actor-protagonist’s performance are all the higher the greater its ability to distinguish itself, both for the aesthetic-architectural quality of the design which identifies it and makes it unique both for the excellence of the products it offers. These too play a fundamental role: they must in fact be beautiful to look at and captivating, because the first impression is the one that guides the choice of those who buy them, but also (and above all) good because they must leave their mark on the senses and memory of those who buy them taste. For this reason, in addition to being perfect in taste, they must also be well presented and well displayed in display cases capable of guaranteeing optimal conditions for their conservation. See also this post on the subject.

#2 – The restaurant as co-protagonist

For some years now, in the wake of the success that the various television formats dedicated to cooking, patisserie, cake design and so on and so forth have been enjoying, the performance of the venue itself is sometimes to add also that of a co-protagonist. This is the chef or pastry chef who, during special events organized ad hoc, performs in show cooking shows, i.e. live cooking demonstrations in front of an , during which the masters talk about themselves and their recipes, revealing and sharing anecdotes and curiosities about the dishes they prepare.

On these occasions, it is no longer just the venue and its identity that takes center stage, but also the maestro: the two subjects relate and interact, accompanying each other each other during the show like two musicians in concert. The audience is made up of a limited number of people who work in the kitchen and pastry shop or, more and more often, the so-called foodies, the non-professional food and wine experts, who passionately research and study good food and who are attentive and curious about all the latest news and trends in the world of gourmet cuisine.

Showcooking exhibitions are often organized and carried out not only for didactic-training purposes, but also (and above all) to promote products and venues: today, in fact, the growing attention to cooking and pastry-making, shown precisely by the exponential increase in the number of enthusiasts, by the proliferation of dedicated blogs and websites and by the veritable invasion of programs on the same themes, pushes insiders to want to grab the presence of the hottest names of the moment, so as to to broaden your range of interests. These are therefore shows in which the venue and its products together with the guest called to intervene, perform simultaneously in front of a common audience, sharing the scene and showing off their respective qualities. Among the illustrious names who intervened for the products of the Clabo group there are, for example, the master Iginio Massari for Orion and the chef Maria Vittoria Griffoni for FB Showcases.

https://www.facebook.com/EffeBshowcases/videos/1172713306172150/

#3 – The venue as a scenography

To close this parallelism between venue and theater there is a final role: the one played by the venue itself when it forms the backdrop for moments shared on social media. From this point of view, the methods of interpretation are many and always in continuous transformation and increase: photos, selfies, videos and stories but also tags and hashtags. These are contents in which the bar, pastry shop or ice cream parlor are no longer real protagonists because at the center of the scene are the people who, by publishing and posting, share a particular moment with the rest of the world. The venue acts as a scenography, indirectly participating in the definition of the atmosphere of the photo or video and returning to being a place.

Sometimes it is explicitly indicated through tags, geographical indications or comments, while other times it is left more simply and silently in the background, behind the smiles and hugs, behind the photos of dishes that look like works of art, below the music . On these occasions, the value of the interpretation of the place once again assumes fundamental importance, because it is on it that its recognizability depends. In fact, it is the character and identity of the place, the result of the sum of the design of the place and the quality of the product it offers, that make it unique and easily distinguishable.

So let’s go back to what has already been highlighted in point #1: whether you consider him a leading or co-leading actor, or whether you relegate him to a purely scenographic role, the performance value of the venue is directly proportional to the design and quality of the products it sells. In the field of pastry and ice cream, it is therefore essential to choose the best refrigerated cabinet intended for the conservation and display of desserts.

Come and discover the excellence of the FB Showcases brand and the infographic created by Cinzia di Martino:

Arch. ELENA OTTAVI

Marchigiana lover of numbers, Art and its history. Curious, sensitive and above all interested in issues related to urban regeneration, the protection of the territory and the architectural-artistic-landscape heritage, sustainable planning and design, she works as a free-lance architect and collaborates with blogs of some companies in the sector.

She is in love with books and the sea, she dreams of being able to travel to discover the world and the places where good Architecture and Design have been able (and will be able to) give life to living and sustainable urban spaces, from all points of view. And, of course, to design them!

Write to us and ask for more information about FB showcases

Handmade chocolate: how and where to store it to the top

by lorenzo in The Showcase
22 April 201716 January 2023

Handmade chocolate: how and where to store it to the top

Chocolate yesterday and today

“The only way to free yourself from temptation is to give in to it” wrote Oscar Wilde at the end of the 19th century, and if there’s one thing I really can’t say no to, it’s chocolate strong>, in whatever form it takes: chocolates, pralines, Easter eggs, a dessert ingredient, ice cream flavour.

It is produced starting from cocoa beans, fruits of the Theobroma cacao tree species, better known as the cocoa tree, and probably already known around 1500 – 1000 BC. Aztecs and Mayans cultivated it to obtain a drink based on cocoa, hot water and pepper, with a bitter taste but prodigious energy properties, therapeutic and aphrodisiac: they called it food of the gods and they used it during ceremonies and sacred rituals.

The recipe for modern chocolate, as we understand it today, began to take on its present form during the 16th century. when the Spanish monks began to sweeten the bitter drink by adding sugar, vanilla and other flavourings.

And throughout history there have been countless personalities who have left traces of their passion for this delicacy: from Marie Antoinette, who seems to have traveled only accompanied by a personal chocolatier, to Voltaire, who drank a dozen of cups a day to combat ailments due to age, to Giacomo Casanova, who made extensive use of it by virtue of its aphrodisiac properties. There are also famous quotations: in Così fan tutte Mozart tells of his strong desire for chocolate, Roald Dahl dedicates him The Chocolate Factory, translated twice to the cinema, and Chocolat is the title of the film (one of many on the subject) with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

Chocolate for all tastes

Despite about 3000 years of history and technological and technical evolution, the cycle of processes that gives life to chocolate has remained almost identical to itself. At the base of everything are the cocoa beans, from which derive the three main types of raw material that master chocolatiers use to prepare their specialities: cocoa mass, cocoa and cocoa powder. The cocoa paste is the result of grinding the cocoa nibs (dried, chopped and roasted beans): the pressure and friction generate heat which, in turn, induces the melting of the cocoa paste strong>cocoa butter, the fatty part contained in the seeds. This, separated from the paste by means of presses and subsequently filtered, is what gives the chocolate its brilliance and the ability to melt in the mouth. What remains of the paste is finally ground again to become cocoa powder.

What has changed and undergone modifications over time are the individual recipes necessary to obtain the finished products: given a common and almost identical starting point for all, the diversification regards the infinite types of finished products. Chocolates, bars, pralines and eggs are now prepared in the most varied and, at times, unusual flavours, and what characterizes them, identifies them and makes them unique are the art and mastery of the chocolatier artisans who made them.

Enemies of chocolate

Quality artisan chocolate is usually prepared from cocoa mass, to which flavors and ingredients are added. Then? What happens to the finished products? What are the times and methods to best preserve them?

Once made, chocolate-based products have some main enemies from which they must be protected and kept away: high temperatures, humid conditions, environments contaminated by other odors and exposure to light and air.

In fact, exposure to high temperatures causes the cocoa butter to melt and is the cause of the phenomenon known as butter blooming, which consists in the appearance of a thin gray patina – white on the surface of the chocolate. The taste itself is not compromised nor are there any health risks for those who eat it, but the aesthetic aspect is strongly the aesthetic aspect which, as we know, is fundamental in the field of confectionary craftsmanship.

exposure to excessive humidity produces the so-called sugar flowering, i.e. the condensation of micro-crystals of sugar on the surface of the chocolate, which consequently takes on a rough and bumpy, rather than smooth and shiny as it should be. On the other hand, when it comes in contact with light and air there is the phenomenon of oxidation, i.e. the fatty part contained in the chocolate decomposes, producing a loss of flavour.

Finally, there are the risks associated with exposure to odors which cocoa butter, being a fatty substance, tends to absorb very quickly.

Top chocolate showcases

The ideal conditions for the perfect preservation of chocolate are those which guarantee an average and constant temperature between 10 and 18°C and humidity between 20 and 50%. Too low or too high temperatures, humidity and exposure to the other factors indicated above are the cause of the onset of those phenomena which, although not harmful from the point of view of the health of those who will eat that chocolate, produce negative changes in the aesthetic appearance of the products. These in particular will not have a smooth, shiny and bubble-free surface as the state of the art would require, but will instead be rough and opaque due to the effect of the blooms.

It is therefore of fundamental importance that the showcases intended for their conservation and display are controlled and adjusted in an extremely precise and accurate manner: only in this way will it be possible to ensure optimal internal conditions from the point of view of temperature and humidity, guarantee the maximum aesthetic quality of the chocolate and, lastly, protect it from contamination with other smells and aromas which would alter its taste. The FB display cases meet these requirements, dedicating to each model a display case designed specifically for the chocolate shop.

This complex system of optimal conditions must also be calibrated according to the perfect conservation of heterogeneous contents: in fact, chocolate is often processed, packaged and sold in a multitude of shapes and textures and combined with other easily perishable ingredients to obtain, for example, creams or pralines, of which quality, freshness and authenticity must be equally guaranteed.

Arch. ELENA OTTAVI

Write to us and ask for more information about FB showcases

How to choose the best display case for an ice cream shop

by lorenzo in The Showcase
11 October 201616 January 2023

How to choose the best display case for an ice cream shop

Choosing the best showcase is a fundamental aspect for the life of an ice cream maker, because it greatly affects both his well-being and professional performance. For this reason we decided to tell you what are the 4 crucial factors to respect when it comes time to choose a showcase: if you follow them, you will be sure that you have invested your resources in the best possible way and that you have identified the perfect showcase for your idea of ice cream shop.

#1 A showcase must… optimize space

The space is a crucial factor for any activity: the profitability of a store, in fact, is also calculated on the basis of the square footage available. The main objective is optimization: for this reason, premises that have limited space available (for example small-sized ice cream parlors, typical of historical centres, or restaurants and other businesses restaurants that do not have ice cream as their core business) should carefully evaluate the size of their showcase, deciding whether to give more importance to the floor space for customers or to the work tool.

#2 A showcase must… enhance the product

When you find yourself in front of a new customer, it is not possible to predict what his tastes are, nor how much he is willing to spend. But there is no doubt about one thing: before doing it with the mouth… the customer eats with the eyes. For this reason, you need to present your ice cream in the best possible way. And to do this, the only solution is to choose a showcase capable of enhancing it with maximum visibility and transparency: all storage solutions that prevent visual contact with the product and hide it represent suicide commercial.

#3 A showcase must… solve needs

Not all ice cream shops work with the same intensity or in the same climatic conditions: an ice cream shop with a thousand receipts a day in a beach chalet and a bar with a hundred receipts a week in an alpine refuge have different needs. The professional who serves ice cream continuously, and does so at high temperatures, puts a strain on his display case: for this reason he must choose an instrument of absolute quality, equipped with an excellent refrigeration system and anti-corrosion glass. – misting, if you don’t want to run the risk of remaining on the ground due to breakdowns and sudden sagging of the showcase.

#4 A showcase must… amaze the customer

Even the eye wants its part, today more than ever. In recent years, in fact, the concept of purchase has changed: it has become less and less “consumption”, to transform itself into an experience that involves all five senses of the customer. Therefore, inside an ice cream parlor it is also important to take care of the aesthetic impact: a showcase with an elegant and refined design is the best solution to amaze the customer, capture his attention and give a captivating style to the local.

FB ice cream showcases

The solutions of the FB brand respect all four crucial factors to observe in order to choose the best display case in an ice cream shop. In fact, FB has always been synonymous with style, elegance and high performance. The Technological Heart of FB solves all the needs of professionals in the sector and presents itself on the market with a wide range of showcases: put it to the test!

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