To go wrong this time it was not the dinner – certainly of a level, at least judging by the photos posted on Instagram – but the menu. Or rather the blind menu, the one that obscures, they say for etiquette, the price of the dishes to the guest. Where, however, the guest, by ancient habit, is almost always the woman to whom the waiters of starred or designer restaurants automatically deliver the card at no cost.
When Agustina Gandolfo, sitting at dinner in the center of Milan with her partner Lautaro Martinez to celebrate the renewal of the player’s contract with Inter, found herself in front of the obscured menu and reacted as follows: “Did you know that in Italy in several restaurants they do not put prices on the menu they give to women? What if I want to pay? I’m outraged. ” Not only that: “The worst thing is that they justify this by saying that it only happens in restaurants of a certain level. And therefore women cannot pay if it is a more expensive dinner?”, Added the Argentine model and fashion blogger. Post viral and off to the controversy, while fighting over the gender gap and the wage gap.
The blind menu it would actually be a normal gesture of care and courtesy, as when a label is asked to hide the price of the books as a gift. But from being an instrument of thoughtfulness it has been transformed with an equation that does not return to everyone in the “pink menu”, because usually, regardless of who books, it is delivered to women. As is sometimes the case with the wine list or the bill in the restaurant. The nice gesture originally sweeps away the choice of who should have the surprise and the obscured menu. Of course, feminism has something to do with it, the equal right to offer and to be guests, but also the possibility of “doing Roman-style” by dividing in half in the couple or that it is she who pays or that everyone pays for himself. To prevent someone else from getting indignant, like Agustina Gandolfo.
Because yes
Cerea: “A gesture of chivalry towards the guest”
“It is good to clarify that this is not a menu for women, but a courtesy menu for guests. Those who have been invited do not see the prices next to the dishes, in the same logic as when you bring a gift to friends and we are be careful that the shopkeeper takes away the price. It would be inelegant to show the cost to the recipient. That’s all. ” Rossella Cerea, of the three-star Michelin restaurant From Vittorio in Brusaporto, in the Bergamo area, it is part of a family that is a symbol of the tradition of hospitality and Italian cuisine in the world. He takes care of the dining room service and works with his brothers, Francesco, Enrico and Roberto Cerea, and his mother Bruna. He talks about the menu blindly as a gesture of respect towards the guest.
When is the menu without prices brought?
“Surely if there is a couple at the table, it is our habit to give the lady the so-called blind menu. It certainly does not want to be an act of discrimination. If anything, it is a form of gallantry, a sort of chivalrous heritage, a way in which the lady is recommended to enjoy dinner, the atmosphere and good food, without worrying about the more prosaic issues. As a woman, I have never seen him as a deminutio. Also because now among websites, online reviews and smartphone apps , the prices can be seen everywhere “.
But the card with no prices to the woman implies that it is always the man who pays.
“Not really, and not always. In some cases it also leads to men. For example, there are customers who invite friends and it is clear that the one who organized the meeting will pay, the one who usually booked. moment that customer is a bit like the owner of the house. And here only he will be given the card with the relative costs. In the same logic, it is the person who hosts who chooses the wines “.
But has anyone bothered about this menu?
“In truth, yes. In the last year we have noticed that many women turn up their noses. Just annoyed maybe not, but surprised and curious, especially if not Italian, yes. Some ask us why the prices are lacking. And, since for our mission is to make guests feel at ease, we have no problem bringing them that with prices. All this is making us reflect and with my brothers we are thinking about whether to eliminate this formula. It is not excluded that may be one of the next changes in our restaurant “.
Why not
Pipero: “For her it is a lack of respect”
“I hate false common sense, forced rules, sometimes professionalism rhymes with coldness. I don’t like menus without prices for women, I’m tired of serving right, left, I do it my way with the aim of entertaining the customer”. Alessandro Pipero, patron of the restaurant Pipero in Rome, a Michelin star, and a reputation as a great maitre and sommelier, has printed in black and white what he thinks of the so-called “courtesy menu” and reiterates it also on TV, in the “First appointment” program on Real Time, by which is among the protagonists.
Have you ever adopted it in your restaurant?
“When I was employed in other restaurants, we had it. The employer always respects himself and I have not opposed it, but since I opened my restaurant I have immediately abolished it”.
Why don’t you like it?
“It is part of what are called cuteness for ladies, but I don’t find anything nice if the person who receives it doesn’t feel equal. On the contrary, it becomes a form of disrespect. And in any case it is anachronistic. We are in 2021 and it is not possible. believe that the woman in the restaurant does not pay. And even if she does not pay, why should she not know the price of the dishes? It is also a matter of practical order “.
How?
“Once if there was a man and a woman at the table for two, it was a romantic dinner. Now a brother and a sister, a friend and a friend, an employer with her employee can go to the restaurant. more so obvious that he pays. And the contradictions in the blind menu do not stop there. By law, in any case, I am obliged to display the prices of the dishes. So, what happens? The lady can read the prices outside the local but not inside? “
A sign of the times, a choice of equal opportunities?
“I would say a choice to keep up with the times. If I bring a lady the menu without prices in fact it implies that they will not split the bill, it is excluded a priori that it can only be she who pays it, that she too has economic independence . And anyway, if the couple is tested, maybe cohabiting / married, it makes no sense not to show her the prices, when they do the bills together at home.
And then there is the right of choice.
“Even if the woman were really a guest of the man with whom she is out for dinner, why shouldn’t she have the possibility to regulate herself, to decide whether to make him spend more or less?”.
.