The 2016 IG Guide: the future is now

Monday 26th October, 11 am. It’s an important moment because we present the ninth edition of the Guida ai Ristoranti di Identità Golose. With an important novelty: for the first time since 2008, in order to read the profiles there’s no need to go to a bookshop or wait for the volume through the post. Just click here because as of today, the IG guide is a tool you can “only” check online, on a free and public platform for everyone.

It is a breaking moment between the past and the future, a decision we owe Paolo Marchi and Claudio Ceroni, the people who wanted to put the paper version in the attic. Here’s the reason behind this move. Marchi: «We had already been wondering for a few years which was the way out of the cul-de-sac in which paper press had ended. A few years ago, the gap with the internet was not so blatant, but today we need to acknowledge that, in terms of restaurant guides, cellulose has lost the match with pixels. Which doesn’t mean we have to stay here and celebrate this loss. Quite the contrary: we want to explore all the available roads of a resource that is potentially extraordinary. Just like what the engineers did – and still do – when we moved from horses to cars».

Besides, for the coronaries of us authors and editors, it is a great relief: «Until last year, the first day in which the printed guide was out, some information was already old: a restaurant was closing, a chef had just left. Now this is different: we can develop the guide updating the product in every moment, even in a minute. We can add a huge amount on content on top of the already large amount we produce on our website. And we can do so as pioneers».

For Claudio Ceroni, what you can now browse on the new domain www.guidaidentitagolose.it «Is a new guide in two ways, both in terms of content and shape. If you don’t give a clean cut to the paper branch, it’s not possible to grow with a suitable web product. For us it is like being born to a new life, with new stimuli and motivations. We did so because we’re sure that thrilling and high quality information can very well coexist with a useful service, offering new modes with a different logic from Tripadvisor or Michelin. We lay claim to the courage of a radical choice, which will have large developments in the coming years».

Let’s see the 10 main characteristics of the guide:

1) On top of the homepage there are geographic search fields. These are divided according to the classic three-categories of Identità: “Italy, Europe and the World”. From the three macro-areas derive (Italian) regions and (European and Rest of the World) countries. When clicking on these, boxes come out with the restaurants, listed according to the alphabetical order of city where they belong. Clicking on each, their profiles will open.

2) Scrolling below the search field in the homepage, you’ll find the content depicting the background of this project: the Preface by the minister for Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies Maurizio Martina, the Introduction by Paolo Marchi, the Young Stars Awards; the 11 Storie di gola [Stories for the palate] signed by great chefs and restaurateurs from around the world, the legend and the colophon.

3) The online guide has a responsive design so you can read it with all sorts of devices: desktop, tablet and smartphone.

4) The profiles in 2016 are an all time high: 693, of which 482 in Italy and 211 in Europe and the world. But in one hour’s time there could be one more or one less.

5) The restaurant profiles, more lively, graphically speaking, and easy to read, have plenty of information: complete details, service, 3-paragraph-long reviews, complete composition of the kitchen and dining room staff, average expense for each course, the culinary reason why to stop there, inclinations and idiosyncrasies of the chef…

6) The profiles have all the advantages of online content: the name of the chef is linked to his profile on our website and other content (recipes, articles...), the restaurant’s physical address is linked to Google maps, sharing buttons at the bottom multiply the reading…

7) The profiles of the 693 reviewed restaurants are signed by 91 collaborators, each one of whom we would like to thank, as always.

8) The young stars in 2016 (that is to say the chefs under 40) are: Enrico Bartolini (best chef), Caterina Ceraudo (best female chef), Isaac McHale (best foreign chef), Claudia Innorta (best sous-chef), Sara Simionato (best pastry chef), Davide Del Duca (beer in the kitchen), restaurant Seta at Mandarin Milano (best wine and spirits list), Alberto Piras (best sommelier), Jgor Tessari (best maître), Reale e Spazio by Niko Romito (best bread basket), Cristian Torsiello (surprise of the year), Lisa Casali (best food writer) and the Uliassi (the family).

9) The Storie di Gola 2016 are a good way to understand the difference between paper and the internet: the stories are equipped with nice photos and most of all links that help getting more details and lead to further reading. Just look at Torino by Matteo Baronetto, Milan by Raffaele Sangiovanni, Florence by Loretta Fanella, Rome by Heinz Beck, Vico and the surroundings by Gennaro Esposito, Ragusa by Ciccio Sultano, London by Brett Graham, Valencia by Ricard Camarena, Rio de Janeiro by Rafael Costa e Silva, Lima by Virgilio Martínez, Tokyo by Luca Fantin. Our thanks go to each one of these 11 chefs for their splendid (and useful) stories.

10) The most important functions of the online guide are those that still need to be developed.