OWAY
Oway is a company that has completely eliminated plastic from every process and product — and mealtimes are no exception. Their needs fall into two areas: catering events for international clients, which call for elegance and beauty and often take place in the fields where their essential herbs are grown; and lunch breaks during the courses held at their facilities, which need to be practical and fairly quick.
ARTER
ARTER is a consortium based in Emilia-Romagna, established to support the region’s sustainable growth through innovation, knowledge development, and the promotion of the territory’s attractiveness and international reach. To this end, it organizes and hosts a wide range of meetings — many of them international — which almost always require catering for lunch breaks, coffee breaks, or aperitifs tied to a conference. ARTER holds very high standards when it comes to sustainability in the kitchen, and we’ve worked with them on an annual collaboration contract, both in Bologna and across the Region.
TEATRO TESTONI
Teatro Testoni is a beloved institution in Bologna — a place that introduces and educates the youngest audiences to the world of theatre and performance, with a rich and busy calendar of events. For them, we curated the catering for the inauguration of their new spaces, with a menu that reflected the theatre’s core values: openness, curiosity, beauty, and sustainability — helping to create a moment where food was the true protagonist. And every spring we partner with them for the Cantamaggio, a large residential theatre workshop that gathers around a hundred young people from across Italy and Europe in Medicina, preparing meals designed to nourish and inspire them.
GIULIA & FRANCESCO’S WEDDING
Among the weddings we’ve catered, the one for Giulia and Francesco — friends we first met at Mutty — presented us with many interesting challenges. The wedding took place far from our kitchen (a two-hour drive away), with 105 guests, in a beautiful garden, and with a menu that was, of course, entirely vegetarian and vegan. Giulia and Francesco also work in food themselves and know exactly what they want — so although they trusted us fully, their expectations were high. It was a pleasure for us to design every detail of a menu that balanced tradition and innovation, surprising the guests with unique dishes (above all, the faux tortellini in bean broth), and closing with a vegan cake decorated with flowers and an incredible flavour.
CINETECA AND CINEMA RITROVATO’S CANTINE
The Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna is dedicated to archival preservation and restoration, the promotion and dissemination of cinema and audiovisual heritage, training, research, and editorial production. Every summer, it organizes one of the most important international cinema events, Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival. For three years running, we took care of the meals for all of the festival’s collaborators and crew throughout its 10-day run — around 130 people, for both lunch and dinner — including delivery to the various locations and takeaway service. The Festival holds very demanding standards when it comes to the sustainability of its operational choices, and catering is no exception: using organic ingredients, avoiding waste (the few leftovers are donated to a local shelter), and feeding the crew well are all elements that work together throughout the Festival and the service we provide.
BOLOGNA UNIVERSITY
The University of Bologna, across its various faculties, organizes and hosts a great many national and international events: conferences, symposia, and study exchanges that require catering for coffee breaks and meals, mostly lunches. The University’s spaces call for flexibility and agility — the ability to adapt to the context and to the needs of guests who are often international. The challenge we face each time is to provide vegetarian and vegan menus that leave no one missing the traditional Bolognese dishes (generally meat-based). We’ve received very positive feedback that reinforces our vision of building a culture in which sustainable alternatives can be embraced at the table as well.
DUMBO, REGIONE EMILIA ROMAGNA, BANGHERANG
We’ve had the chance to work with events, conferences, and workshops where the need is always for a quick and easy service, often consumed on the move. We’ve therefore organized both deliveries with our dabba (for smaller numbers) and with 100% compostable containers (for larger numbers or when meals need to be eaten on the go). The challenge is often to find a menu solution that satisfies and surprises, while also staying within tight budgets and meeting the need for a service that’s quick yet still rewarding.