Altruism and a pizza the action by Italian family
MANY shops in this country town remain closed, reflecting predictions that 9,000 small and mediumsized businesses may not survive. Certainly, every day you hear about another restaurant that has gone to the wall, often despite decades of hard graft.
In stark contrast to the fortunes, quite literally, of the largest fast-food restaurant chain in the world, which has 89 branches in this country — and counting — the company anticipating a “continued expansion” of operations here. Little wonder it’s ‘Mcloving’ us, given the Irish wing paid a dividend of over €100m to its American parent in 2016.
Drive-thru versions are sprouting up everywhere, alongside those of other multinational food chains, especially at petrol stations along motorways. Including a finger-licking favourite whose parent company here operates one of the largest of its franchises in Europe. “It’s a tricky time for everyone,” according to its managing director for the UK and Ireland,
“but we recognise we have a role to play in providing access to hot, affordable and accessible food for everyone. We’re looking forward to welcoming our fans back!”
I wonder if any of those fans happened to be in University Hospital Waterford recently. And if so, whether they noticed that the food tent by the main entrance that was giving away gourmet pizzas for free to frontline workers wasn’t a branch of a certain colonel, golden arches or flaming whopper, but a local restaurant called Azzurro, established in 2007 by brothers Adriano and Dario Cavaliere; half Italian and 100pc fantastic.
Adriano was one of the three hunks wisecracking their buns off there that day. He explained that his wife works for the HSE and helped set up a Covid hub during the height of the crisis.
“She worked all the way through Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and wasn’t paid. We were all hiding from the Covid, and they ran into the wave.”
Adriano, Jason and
Tom made pizzas for them. “Someone said to me, would you think about doing it for the hospital? And I said, you know what? I will. But then the social distancing came in and it felt like the world was going to end. So I said, give me a shout when this clears up and I’ll come back and do it for you. So last week they gave me a shout. So here I am.”
They told no one what they were doing, though a local radio station got wind of it. They were up at dawn to make sauces, having spent the previous days preparing the bases. They made 500 pizzas the day before. That lunchtime they had already given away 600. They were going to stay till every last pizza was gone.
Till they had given all they had, taking care of those who are taking care of us all. Not minding their own business but keeping an eye on the bigger picture, by protecting what makes us the people we are, over the profit-making that is the primary focus of those merely passing through.