When we talk about Italian excellences in the world, it is easy to describe activities related to gastronomy: not only restaurants and hotels, but also small or medium entrepreneurs who recreate and promote abroad some of the food and wine peculiarities of our country.
It is more and more difficult, in modern times, to combine production and distribution of products linked to our land and unmistakably "ambassadors" of traditions, authenticity, taste and pleasure that bring us back to Italy.
In Nairobi, for more than eighteen years, one of these excellences has been consolidated, which manages to maintain an Italian identity linked to tradition, combining it with the needs of large-scale distribution and the final and essential needs of the clientele.
Under the brand name "Queen Deli", in Westlands, in the heart of Nairobi, is hidden the work of an entrepreneur from Perugia, Monia Posti, and her husband Leonardo Dolciami.
Starting from the importation in Kenya of Italian and European products of the highest quality and tying in the past years to the first national chain of supermarkets (Nakumatt, which despite having an unfortunate epilogue has prompted many other realities to believe in it), Monia has decided to devote himself personally to the creation of specialties related to our culinary culture and the Mediterranean, using mainly Kenyan raw materials and teaching the craft to local employees. This is how Queen Deli was born, a company that still has all the trappings of a family-run, homegrown business, with the professionalism of those who are oriented towards serial sales on the counters of hypermarkets, such as Carrefour, leader in large-scale distribution in Kenya.
"Our challenge is this - admits Monia Posti, in Nairobi since 1995 - to root ourselves more and more in the market that counts, maintaining the quality and genuineness of the products, as well as managing to combine raw materials of absolute quality with competitive prices. Promoting Italian excellence also means making elite products such as Parmigiano Reggiano and Burrata accessible.
Entering the perfect mechanism of the small company in Westlands, you immediately understand how quality is put first. In the departments, 95% of which are run by women, from storage to processing, everything is done with passion, and it is natural to experiment and create new appetizing proposals. The latest is the "box on delivery", a mix of imported and locally created goodness, enclosed in a wooden box, ordered via the Queen Deli website and shipped directly to your home. In practice, a pre-packaged catering, ready to show off at a party but also to be enjoyed with the family or for a picnic. Inside Queen Deli there is also a mini dairy, where mozzarella, ricotta and fabulous burrata are produced, a rarity that is conquering the palate of Kenyans, as well as fading with pleasure the nostalgia of the palate of the many Italian expats in Nairobi and surroundings. Even the products imported from Italy, from Parmigiano Reggiano to cold cuts (Beretta) or cheeses that cannot (yet) be produced in Kenya, are of the highest level.
There is no doubt about it, Queen Deli is a real Italian excellence in Kenya and the video service "on the field" below shows, tells and explains this praiseworthy phenomenon...and will make your mouth water!
Enjoy the video! (IS IN ITALIAN, USE YOUTUBE TRANSLATOR)