Simone Padoan: time to plan the future. I will deliver my pizzas all across Italy

Who would have imagined such a situation, in 2020? But here we are, forced to stay still. The first month I decided not to work: partly out of respect, partly out of fear, partly because I felt I really needed to slow down. I had to reach the point where I was bored.

In fact, you can do many things at home too, I’m never completely bored. Yet we are people use to work with their hands, in the frontline, in the kitchen, we see many people… At the same time when we had to stop, we also were a little bored. Boredom is not necessarily entirely negative: it helps to clean your mind, and thus to develop new ideas for the present and the future.

Padoan without beard: a photo from a while ago 

This is crucial to imagine the future. I want to react, and this is a good thing. There’s undoubtedly a reluctance to think positive, in the midst of this pain, this drama. I find it hard to write or post something because I feel I’m extremely lucky and so I’m uneasy when showing even a little optimism. But it’s a necessity, we cannot just feel sorry for ourselves.

As I said, I wanted to stay closed for one month. For the above-mentioned reasons, but also because at first I felt everyone wanted to stay at home, rediscover their family, for good and for worse. Perhaps even through fighting! Last week, instead, I returned to my laboratory and went back to work. At first, I was working by myself, with no rush, with no set timing. I just wanted to get my body and mind back at work, and think of how to face these difficult moments, and what will come next.

The first dough I made was sweet. It was meant for me, for my dear ones and my neighbours. People I hardly knew and whom I now call by their name, I got to know them, at a distance. This is a good thing.

Padoan’s announcement

Some days ago, like many, I started offering a delivery service. I launched I Tigli a casa, our first delivery, many years ago: but without promoting it too much, it was mostly an experiment. We have now started from that, with the advantage of having some experience. We have already planned everything, we didn’t need new ideas. Of course, we don’t do it just for money, now. If anything, we try to restart the engine, so we can keep our place in people’s hearts and minds and make them smile. With me there are one or two guys, the others are at home, laid off.

I ask those who want my pizza not to write or use social media, but to call me on the phone. We are all isolated, distanced from one another: so I prefer to have a chat, "tell me who you are, where you are, what do you like, your needs and expectations, and based on this I’ll see how I can satisfy you". Talking is essential.

We also think about the future, which won’t be easy. So I Tigli a casa will have some interesting developments. We now deliver within 20 km. Not the classic round pizza, ready to be eaten: but the base, with the ingredients on the side (a typical feature of our pizza. We were once criticised for this, it is now an advantage), and people end the baking and the making easily at home. I think it’s nice: you receive your delivery, you must work a little, use your hands, follow the instructions... It becomes a way to interact, a way to "live" the pizza from I Tigli.

The team of I Tigli at work 

The idea is to widen this mechanism, delivering all across Italy with thermic boxes, all cold, within 36 hours. We label everything, there’s a 4-day shelf life. This, even because of what awaits us: when we’ll open again, we won’t be able to seat the same number of guests, at least for as long as we must coexist with this situation. Hence, we must think of new tools, because I don’t want to give up my staff, I don’t want to make anyone redundant. So I must find new formats to keep them working with me.

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso