You are Elena Conti, chef-owner of Trattoria Radici, a one-Michelin-star restaurant in the hills outside Bologna. You have just announced that in 35 days you relaunch on a regenerative, near-zero-waste menu. The draft menu comes out expensive, and your first working session with the team starts today.
The situation
May 2026. Radici has 64 seats and a kitchen that improvises with whatever the land gives each week; that instinct won it its star. Last year it took €2.4 million with food cost at 33% of revenue and a 9% net margin, about €216,000: thin, but real. The average check is €115. A loan on the kitchen's recent refit carries a covenant that tightens over the coming quarters.
A week after the announcement, your cost controller brings the costed draft: food cost comes out at 41%, eight points above the usual and six past the 35% ceiling he defends. Regenerative ingredients cost 22% to 60% more than conventional ones, and the three committed farms can guarantee only 60% of weekly volume. Waste runs at 9% of purchases, about €71,000 a year, against a public promise of 4%.
A customer panel scored the draft 8.4 out of 10 on novelty, but called two dishes "worthy but joyless". The kitchen's own reading of how much guests crave the menu stands at 55 out of 100, against a target of 80. A food critic and a regional sustainability award jury both have tables this month, and both mean to check your suppliers.