Elisa Neri, UNISG alumna and founder of Foodey
Where does your passion for Gastronomy that led you to your Graduate degree in Pollenzo come from? Even as a child, I remember being 8 years old and loving experimenting or imagining new recipes which I would then list to my teachers at school. After high school, I decided to embark on my studies in this sector, enrolling in the Faculty of Dietetics of Turin; This has been a very tough journey for me, it’s been 3 very intense years which required many sacrifices but which have made me love the world of food and nutrition even further. After my bachelor’s degree, I moved to Singapore to do an internship. I didn’t work in the sector for which I had studied but I really wanted to have an experience abroad that would take me out of my comfort zone and discover other cultures. During this period I became very close to Asian culture which fascinated me a lot. After 6 months I decide to return to Italy and with the idea of wanting to enrich my curriculum and my knowledge in the gastronomic field, hence the decision to enroll in the Graduate degree at Unisg.
How was your journey after graduation and what UNISG values accompanied you?
Immediately after enrolling in the graduate degree, I realized that I would like to start a career path in marketing and so it was. During the two-year period I did a first internship at Domori, a company specialized in the production of high quality chocolate, this then opened the doors for me when I looked for my second internship in the middle of the second year. Thus I began to work in trade marketing at Caffarel.
Certainly having an education at Unisg has allowed me to complete my profile for the food sector. It made me understand which topics I wanted to explore and how complex and articulated this sector was.
Foodey, what is it about and how did you start it?
Foodey was officially born at the end of 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic that brought the world to its knees. The idea for the project was born before 2018 when I decided to leave Caffarel and throw myself into a project of my own. Difficult years followed, made up of many climbs. The idea behind Foodey was to create a restaurant format focused on quality Asian cuisine without long menus but only with ravioli, noodles and ramen made to perfection. I wanted xiaolongbao on the menu, a dish I had fallen in love with many years earlier in my experience in Asia.
This is a particular type of ravioli with a thin sheet that encloses a creamy heart of broth. The technique for closing this type of ravioli is very complex and it takes years to become really good at making. So in 2018 I decided to go to China to take a cooking class specializing in ravioli but I realize that it’s too complex to carry out my project with this type of approach. So I decided to look for Asian cooks who were experts in this preparation. I know 3 chefs from Manila and after a couple of months I leave to meet them in person.
Back in Italy, I start the process for issuing work visas for the 3 cooks, a very long process that takes me 2 and a half years of work. (In Italy today obtaining a work visa without a degree is almost impossible). Meanwhile the pandemic arrives which discourages all souls but by now I had been working on this project for too many years to give up everything, even if I do not deny that I have had many moments in which I thought about giving up. In December 2020, the 3 chefs from Manila arrive and on July 3, 2021 we officially inaugurate our first store, Tuttofabrodo.
What do you recommend to young people who want to open new businesses in this sector?
In Italy today doing business is not easy at all, there are many rules, and the living costs don’t help. I think it takes a lot of passion first of all and then arm yourself with a lot of patience but at the end of the day all your work gives you incredible satisfaction.
