Italy’s Slow Food Movement and Fast Food Players

by: Kristina Pacifico

Living in the United States means a few things:

Enormously large fast-food selection anywhere and everywhere
Starbucks available at every corner
Use of services like Uber and Lyft are present in most, if not all, states and cities in the country

After visiting the northern city centers of Italy (Rome, Florence, and Milan), there were a few observations I had made.

There are only a few American fast-food joints that are present within these cities
There’s no Starbucks (yet). The very first Starbucks will be located in Milan, but the store itself will be under strict watch due to Italy’s coffee culture
BONUS: Uber and other car sharing services have yet to take off in these big cities, but similar to the Starbucks in Milan, they might be coming soon

From Italy’s point of view, food is a big deal. No surprise there. Italian culture values its culinary art and history. This means that Italians put a lot of time and care into their foods. The phrase “slow food movement” refers to just that, food that is prepared slowly. The dishes take time to cook, and most likely they are made with Italy’s best ingredients.

A detail within the slow food movement also deals with the idea that you’re taking the time to enjoy not only the food you’re eating, but the people you’re sharing the meal with. Think of big family dinners or grabbing lunch with friends in order to catch up. This eating time is set aside for enjoying the community that the food brings together. Our tour guides and guest speakers would tell us that this was the Italian way of dining. In every media visit, our hosts would include a break time where we would eat snacks, drink espresso, and talk with our host speakers. During our group dinners we would be eating side-by-side with our tour guides, bus drivers, and we were even having lengthy chats with the restaurant servers.

Because of this, fast-food places in Italy aren’t the focal point. There are tons of sit-down restaurants and cafes where you can get food from, but not every eatery is the same as they are at fast-food joints. In each of the blog posts I’d made during the course of the trip, I wrote a lot about the different restaurant’s pasta and wine selections; how there are many appetizers, primary dishes, and secondary dishes to choose from; as well as the one check policy.

One thing that stood out the most, was the fact that many restaurants don’t immediately provide the option to split the check. Many times we were on a time crunch when going out to eat, so it was difficult to see if it were possible to ask to split the check. Some of that hesitation is because of the language barrier. Instead of saying “Can we split the check?” in English, it might be better to say, “Can we divide the check?” because that is closer to the Italian translation. There was one dinner during our stay in Rome that allowed my group of friends to venture out to a restaurant for a longer period of time. At this restaurant, we were able to ask the waitress if she could split the check. We did need to ask the woman sitting next to us to help us translate, but it worked out in the end.

On another night in Rome, where dinner was on our own, my party and I truly experienced the slowness of the slow food movement. I didn’t mind it too much because it gave us all the chance to easily digest our food and we also got to catch up and talk. During our first non-group dinner in Rome, we waited close to an hour to receive our check after the server had already cleaned up our dishes. At first the server had offered to give us the dessert and coffee menu, but we asked him for the check and it still took a while, so I can understand how all the waiting can impact anyone who is impatient. Also, we were in another country, so it was easy for someone to feel restless or anxious about the restaurant experience when dealing with a foreign language and culture.

While in Italy, I’d noticed that out of the American fast-food chains, there are a handful of McDonald’s, Burger Kings, and Subways. There was even a KFC sprinkled in the mix that was spotted while on our guided tour of Milan.

Although there is such a focus on a slower dining experience, Italy is still filled with busy people looking to find food to eat during their lunch or snack breaks. This is where our American fast-food friends might be helpful. If you really needed a quick bite, then McDonald’s might be your place, or you could venture out to one of the grocery stores and grab a pre-made sandwich. These are the same types of sandwiches we found at the rest stops during our longer bus rides. They manage to fill you up while also being affordable!

On multiple occasions before sending us off for lunch, our tour guide, Matteo Troiani jokingly threatened us not to return to the group if we ended up eating at McDonald’s. Part of me wanted to see if Italian McDonald’s offered certain items that were different than in American McDonald’s. Another part of me wanted to see if the McDonald’s formula was easily replicated no matter what country you were in. Of course, we were better off just getting something to eat from a nearby restaurant or café for the sake of the Italian experience. Although, even if you did go to McDonald’s, it would be safe to assume that the menu would still be in Italian and you would be served by Italian speaking employees until they realize that you’re American and then they respond to you in English.

American fast-food restaurants aren’t the only international eateries stationed in Italy, there is a Jollibee, which is a Filipino fast food chain. This restaurant had recently opened in the past year–the first of its kind in Europe! Jollibee was an eatery that I’d been craving since it isn’t readily available in Pittsburgh. Fun fact: Did you know that Milan has a large Filipino community? As of 2016, it was cited that Filipinos are the sixth largest ethnic group residing in Italy. So, it was interesting to find out that they would place the first European Jollibee branch in Milan. There were many Filipinos and Italians eating at the restaurant when we stopped by for lunch, which means that the restaurant must be a hit.

Later we would find that there’s an Italian fast-food joint too, but it’s more like a food stand than an actual restaurant. (Just so you know, we’ve seen these types of stands in all the countries we visited.) On our last free day in Milan, we had lunch at Luini. Described as an “Italian Fast Food” place, it was a mix between a café, a bakery and a food stand. There were two lines where you could order food from and two large signs on each side to make the ordering process easier, but despite there being a line, the food service was pretty… well…. fast. The reason I added the food stand descriptor in there was because there is no seating at Luini. We ended up finding a random spot beside the H&M so we could sit down. Because of time, we weren’t interested in a full-service restaurant. In order to feed ourselves and continue on with the day, Luini fit the bill.

Most restaurants actually include a service fee just to sit down in their space, which is why we opted for a sidewalk curb instead of sitting at a restaurant table. In some cases, restaurant workers will ask you to leave if you’re sitting at one of their tables but aren’t purchasing anything. This service fee is only a few euros, but if you’re eating with a larger group (more than three- four people), that fee can almost be as much as a light meal.

Despite the strict rules that are the end product of Italy’s slow food movement, it’s not hard to tell that American and other international fast food joints are slowly making their way to Italy. Later on, I would find in my research that Italy has their own version of fast-food restaurants different from Luini and on that same day that we would eat there, I discovered that a Five Guys would be opening in Milan, too.

Fast food continues to exist because people are constantly moving and need food as quickly as they can get it. For all those who have the time to take their time, Italy’s slow food restaurants are there for you too.

The point of this article isn’t to make you think “Oh, slow food is better than fast food.” I wanted to write this to allow you to rethink about food in general. As Americans, we eat too quickly and with big portions. Most of the time I want to eat slowly and use that time to talk with friends (I already do this in the U.S., but you get the point).

I was told once that European food came in smaller portions than American food. Italy seems to think otherwise because the portions were the same, if not larger and there were multiple dishes being served. I’ve never eaten so much pasta in my whole entire life. There were plenty of times that I couldn’t finish all my food, but I could tell that each ingredient and flavor used was crafted with a purpose.

I briefly mentioned the Starbucks that’s going to open in Milan. Reports tell us that the Milan Starbucks will open in September 2018. There are said to be 150 jobs available for this venture and about 5,000 people applied for these positions.

Don’t even get me started on Italy’s coffee culture. In our two weeks in Italy, I grew to love espresso and when I ordered an espresso back in the U.S., it just wasn’t the same. For starters, when you order espresso, you call it a caffé. Not once did I ever ask specifically for an espresso and the reason for that is because espresso is “coffee.”

They say that coffee is so ingrained in Italian culture that Italians have it with basically every meal. According to a 2016 annual Italian Restaurant report, there’s one bar for every 406 citizens in Italy. In short, you can find a place that serves espresso (caffé) similar to how there’s a Starbucks at every corner in the U.S. The Italian espressos were always hot, and they gave you a small spoon to stir the caffé. On both occasions that I’ve gone out to get an espresso at coffee shops in the U.S., the espresso was cold, which in my opinion changes the flavor and the experience.

With that it looks like Italy has a pretty good grasp on its food and coffee, and Italians really value taking their time. Actually because of this, they should call it “Italian time.” We were only in Italy for about two weeks, but I definitely could’ve spent that time eating for two weeks by slowly wining and dining. There were definitely more Italian dishes that I could have sought out, if only I had more time. I ate too much pasta and didn’t have enough euros, but from now on, I’m sure you can still find me enjoying every sit-down meal as if it’s “Italian time.”

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Additional reading:

“Eat Slow Food in Italy.” by David Raezer.

“Italians to wake up and smell Starbucks coffee in Milan.” By Angela Giuffrida

“Leading ten fast food chains in Italy…” – Statista

“Slow Food Italy fights fast-food failings.” by James Joshua (2017).

“Starbucks meets future employees in Italy.” – Starbucks EMEA News“Starbucks to hire 150 people for its first Italian store.” – Reuters

“Starbucks To Open In Italy, Home Of Espresso, In 2018. Italian Cafes Say Bring It.” By Lucia Maffei

“The Slow Food Movement in Italy.” by Linda G. Bass (2015).