The restaurant should never be a sanctuary reserved to the chef, but rather a place for the customer and the chef to meet through the dining room. The key of hospitality lies in kindness, in the nobility of kind gestures. Being genuinely kind strongly affects people: "You get what you give".

Only when the staff in the kitchen is open to the inputs coming from the dining room do all the pieces combine to create the perfect outcome. Cooking means taking care, serving means loving. An experience involving food and wine must be staged as a choreography of emotions, never forgetting to play with the senses, something that requires full harmony between customer, kitchen, and dining room staff. I define myself as a "waiter of wines"; I feel like a waiter and I love attending to the needs of my customers.

The concept of hospitality has deeply changed over the years. Customers are now much more open to casual experiences. This is not to say that the concept of fine dining has disappeared. The entry in The World's 50 Best Restaurant of establishments such as the Cosme in New York or The Clove Club in London is a confirmation of this: both restaurants play on a strong hospitality built in the framework of a relaxed and casual environment.

We have customers who come from the other side of the world just to eat in our restaurant and fully discover our country. What is important to them is the whole experience we offer. When they taste a dish, they wish to taste our territory.

What happens in the dining room reflects what happens in the kitchen. The human component has the potential of forging strong bonds and, even in hotels, hospitality can be exploited to attract not only the tourists but the locals too.

Even those that wipe clean a wine glass play a fundamental role in the customer experience. Paying attention to the smallest of details requires an incredible level of involvement by the staff, which is only possible when they have a margin of creative freedom that goes beyond strict procedural guidelines.

The real challenge is "entertaining" the customers by establishing a comfortable atmosphere and telling the best possible story about your cocktails or dishes and conveying real emotions.

Family and the Italian identity are to be understood in a socio-cultural context: all around the world, Italian families are a synonym for hospitality and kindness. But simply because an activity is family-based, it does not mean that it cannot be professionalised. It often happens that the best maîtres and sommeliers are those who have built their background in big family-driven restaurants. Young people have to get back into the dining room business, because here is where you meet the world.

The service in the dining room turns into a rewarding experience when it can count on a prime-quality kitchen, but when it is not the case, the staff in the dining room plays an even bigger role, because it must go to the rescue of less-than-perfect dishes.

You can understand what goes on in a restaurant just by looking at the quality of its dining room service, which is also a great life-coaching experience and a way to learn about the world. The ultimate goal must be to be generous and "put your soul into what you are doing" without becoming servants, but seducing the customers. They have to leave already wishing to come back.

The people working in the dining room have to be properly trained and, even in a pizzeria, they must cater to the customers’ needs and work in sync. That is why our waiters intern at Michelin-starred restaurants.

In a reality like ours, where the time of the day determines the atmosphere and the type of customers, it is pivotal to have a staff that can properly convey the mission of the restaurant, as well as have a great deal of flexibility and horizontal skills.

We are neither a restaurant nor a wine bar. We pride ourselves on being different and therefore our hospitality is different too, in constant evolution, characterised by continuous changes and rich in initiatives involving food and wine as well as the arts and culture. We want to build a sense of closeness and cosiness that fully involves the customers and friends coming to our establishment.

Serving food in a dining room requires sharing the emotions of the clients and seeing the room through their eyes. It is a form of art linked to the ability to create a feeling, meet the desires, and solve issues. Analysing and learning the rules of the service is the basis of this endeavour, as rules can only be broken when they are well known. Our staff must be able to express their identities through the service, as it is precisely their behaviour and style that determine everything else.

Caring for others is a mission; it is a component of all social acts. We are currently witnessing the "renaissance" of the work in the dining room and, as in the original Renaissance, everything stems from the human component. As Master Marchesi said: "You need deep-rooted knowledge to improvise". Training schools serve this purpose; they kindle the passion of young people and allow them to fully express themselves.

In an increasingly technological world, where everything is strictly disciplined, the dining room represents the one place where character, empathy, ingenuity, and improvisation can flow freely. That is why it is so hard to teach this job in the classroom.

The work done in the dining room can be summed up with three words: elegance, character, and warmth. There cannot be a right or a wrong way to serve: what is important is to adapt to the situation.

Dishes do not get out of the kitchen on their own legs to walk to the table, which is why it is fundamental to have a professional that not only brings it to your table, but also presents it at best.

Waiters must be humble, able to cooperate and great team players. More importantly, they must have the right attitude, which can often be revealed even just by the look in their eyes.

Not everyone can be a waiter: you need a strong passion, will, and identity. In this job, you cannot copy what someone else does. To become the best, you must be authentic. You need to be hungry for success, not searching for renown. The only way to get to the top is to work hard and have a genuine passion for the job.

Waiters must leave their ego outside the dining room, but always take their personality with them. They must become chameleons and change according to the situation that they are facing.