Sonia Peronaci - Giallo Zafferano was just the beginning

Today she uses her own name to grace the food projects she has been launching successfully and steadily for years. But for a long time she was the lady of Giallo Zafferano, the first Italian video recipe website, a pioneer of a model imitated far and wide. Sonia Peronaci is an entrepreneur with clear ideas, able to spot the trends in her sector well in advance. How? We asked her directly, and what emerges is quality and passion alongside a degree of competence and empathy that is rarely found in the same person. And while we were at it, we asked her about the shortage of staff that has been troubling the restaurant world for some time.

Identity and quality are two key words she used to describe her projects.

Let's start with identity: when did you realise who you were and what you wanted?

“When Francesco (Lopes, the entrepreneur's partner, ed.) and I created Giallo Zafferano in 2006, I knew what I wanted to build. Knowing my passion for cooking, many people suggested I open a restaurant, but having seen my parents work in the restaurant trade, I was sure it wasn't the path I wanted to take. When the web arrived I realised I could combine my recipes with the internet: I liked the opportunity to share my ideas with the whole world. From the start Giallo Zafferano was meant to become a job, not a hobby. I knew that in Italy it was too early for a project like this, unlike in America, France or England. At the same time I was sure the time would come. We were forerunners: in 2006 companies weren't ready, they didn't know how to exploit the potential of the web. But when the time was right, we were already well positioned.”

The other word that defines your work is quality: your formats always guarantee correct, precise results. How do you build a top-level product?

“I saw lots of recipes around that were all text with few images, mostly databases companies used to make a bit of money, all the same, soulless. Or reference points like La Cucina Italiana, which however took a lot for granted, for example how to draw a duck, which made the recipes the preserve of people who already knew how to cook. I, for one, wanted something tested by someone, with pictures, a simpler approach. For example, at the moment we're working on a recipe for a Mexican bread. Watching videos and blogs we tried making it at least ten times but it didn't come out the same. Then we realised the secret was hidden in a kind of decoration. Small things that make the difference.”

People say young people are losing their hands-on cooking skills, that we risk abandoning rituals and traditions: do you agree?

“If we're talking about ordinary people who don't work with food, I agree. Today we have so much choice that we've become lazy: in Milan, if you want something ethnic, for example, it arrives at your door in half an hour. I think it's also a product of prosperity.”

In light of that, why would you advise someone to learn to cook or to try their hand at a recipe?

“For me cooking is a stress reliever. Just watch how children approach it. If every mother spent two hours a week teaching them to cook, she would be giving them a great gift, something they would carry with them all their lives. Even just learning to recognise ingredients. And we eat at least twice a day: by cooking we take care of our health, and it also lets us save money.”

Three clichés about Italian cooking.

“That we only know how to make pizza, when we have a huge variety of foods and recipes: we could make different dishes for a whole month.

That Italians are good cooks: it isn't true, we like eating, but that doesn't mean we know how to prepare a dish. And the third cliché is that you don't need any equipment in the kitchen. You need a minimum: if you have to chop everything by hand because you don't have a blender, it stops being a pleasure. You don't need much, just three knives that cut well, a blender, a thermometer for better frying. Small things to make you happy to cook.”

A non-Italian cuisine that has won you over.

“Vietnamese cuisine: we Italians like it a lot because it's very varied, healthy, surprising, and there are comforting dishes that combine taste and health, unlike Thai food, for example, which is good but heavy.”

The time you ate really badly.

“In Egypt. They put tonnes of spices on everything: from eggs to prawns, everything tastes the same, and there's little variety: as Muslims, for example, they don't eat pork.”

Let's move on to another subject: the shortage of staff in the restaurant world. The labour market is going through a period of change, many people are quitting so they no longer have to put up with gruelling conditions. Yet cooking is a job that people love but that is also tiring. You have a young team: how do you hold on to them?

“Perhaps Covid-19 awakened certain needs in people, such as having more time for themselves. It's true that in the restaurant world many people were exploited for years, but it seems people no longer want to make sacrifices. We always saw work as a chance to better ourselves. Television also helps create false myths: you hear about people gaining fame and money overnight. That never happened to us. We need a middle way between not exploiting people and changing attitudes towards work. In any case, it's a time of confusion; people have reacted in unusual ways to things nobody expected, first the pandemic and then the Russia-Ukraine war. It's fine to rebel against something that isn't right, but you need an appropriate way to solve problems.”

Sonia Peronaci will always be the founder of Giallo Zafferano, the woman who gave a new imprint to the way people approach cooking. But after selling it in 2015, she launched a new project that was pioneering too, soniaperonaci.it, being the first to use her own name for a brand. A factory in Milan and numerous activities she brings to life non-stop, including something new that started recently...

“We've created an online course to help people who want to break into the food world to approach the sector in the right way. Eight months of weekly online sessions and finally three meetings at the factory. There's a lot of enthusiasm, the programme is well structured and it leads to good discussions because people can interact with one another. The participants are mostly women between 25 and 60, and it's lovely to see there's no age limit for taking on a challenge.”

What would you say to yourself at the start of this successful journey?

“To hang in there because it isn't easy, but a lot of satisfaction comes.”

The luxury you allow yourself?

“The luxury of beauty. For me it's important to be in a beautiful environment, where it's a pleasure to go to work, pleasant for the staff, a well-kept place where I feel calm and at peace. It isn't something to take for granted, and it matters since we spend more time at work than at home.”

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