Beijing Express, Franco Morando: “In Turin you eat and drink badly”, the revolt of the restaurateurs
This year’s Torino Express is an edition that puts Turin in the spotlight. After the Turin lawyer Alessandra Demichelis, who ended up in the storm for having declared that the poor should burn in hell, now the Turin restaurateurs are in revolt against the wine entrepreneur Franco Morando who – during a video with the same lawyer – declared : «Turin is a shitty city, I’ll never live there. I say this against my interests, if you want to eat and drink badly, come to Turin. It’s embarrassing. Travel 70 km more, you are in Milan and you will live better».
Franco Morando was a prophet. If he wanted to harm his interests by speaking, he succeeded perfectly. “In my three establishments, I will immediately remove the products of the Montalbera winery from the wine list,” said Fulvio Griffa, president of Fiepet-Confesercenti, the association of public establishments. Griffa is not alone. In these hours Confesercenti is getting a lot of reaction from Turin bars and restaurateurs outraged by the entrepreneur’s words.
I will never buy his wine again and I will ask my colleagues to do the same. Such a person does not deserve any kind of consideration, especially to be hosted in my place
«The world of catering is in revolt – says Giancarlo Banchieri, president of Confesercenti – and as an association we believe it is appropriate to give a voice to the category. A category that with difficulty comes out of difficult years and that with sacrifice is bringing the city back to its liveliness and its natural vocation, the food and wine one. We cannot accept this denigration of trained, attentive and passionate professionals, capable of promoting the good name of Turin, both nationally and internationally”.
We work every day to make Turin welcoming. And food and wine is our calling card. No one can afford to describe Turin and us restaurateurs in this way
Franco Morando, 43, with a degree in law, is the nephew of Enrico Riccardo, from Turin, one of the pioneers of pet food in Italy. He is the third generation heir of one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in Piedmont. In addition to animal feed, his grandfather, father Walter and uncle Giovanni invested in wine, giving birth to Montalbera, an estate between Monferrato and the Langhe, where Ruchè, a red wine, is mainly produced.
It offends us caterers, our city and all our customers. Shame!!!
Morando’s words emerged during the video with the Turin lawyer who has already fallen into the storm. At that moment there was talk of Turin and Morando thus attacked the Il Cammbio restaurant and its Cavour bar: «There were only escorts and poor people». Then the extension of the offenses to all Turin restaurants.
In the evening, the entrepreneur himself wanted to apologize: “Following the media coverage of a video in which I am present, I feel it is necessary to specify that the statements made, albeit absolutely inappropriate, were said in a joking context between friends at the end of a dinner . This does not justify a behavior but places it in a precise context”. The wine entrepreneur also added: «These are statements that I don’t think and that don’t correspond to my person, for this reason I regret them and I feel like apologizing to all those who have felt offended or, in some way, affected by such utterances. I absolutely do not think that catering in Turin is scarce, on the contrary I think that in recent years the level has risen further and as a Piedmontese who is alive this area that I love, both as a citizen and as an entrepreneur».
