Video: Luca Digesù (and Focaccia Blues), a story so true that it has been invented?
2024 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 12:26
Sit down and breathe before continuing. Present Luca Digesù, the small baker from Altamura, in Puglia, who in 2005 forced the McDonald's restaurant to close due to lack of customers, whose story inspires the soon-to-be-released film, Focaccia Blues, “Cinefocaccia more fun than any cinepanettone”, definition of the writer Camillo Langone read this morning on the sheet? According to a comment left on Dissapore, his story is completely made up. We cannot confirm Clara's theory, this is the commentator's name, but we have found that more than one person credits her version.
I was born and live in Altamura and I would like to inform you that the story of the little Altamura baker who defeats McDonald's is completely fictional. Beautiful, fascinating, intriguing but completely made up.
When the little baker opened his shop, it had already been decided to close the McDonald's in Altamura because it was hypertrophic. Quite popular but not enough. Everyone in the city knew this and the manager responsible confirmed it immediately after closing, admitting the error of assessment. They were just waiting for the contract to expire two or three months later. It occupied a boundless area, in the center, with a very high rent. Imagine that now in the same room there are, comfortably, a bank and a clothing store. In Bari, the only McDonald's in the city occupies an area ten times smaller.
The publicity stunt to launch the little baker is the result of the volcanic mind of a jolly good fellow (whom I know very well) who also worked as a journalist for an important national newspaper, which no longer exists. He often invents fascinating news, but almost always nobody believes in it. In this case the thing got out of hand: first a former colleague who published it in a famous national weekly fell for it (I don't know how much in good faith), then an unsuspecting Liberation journalist fell for it and finally we a reporter from the New York Times fell (almost completely). The news went around the world but, I repeat, it was invented. It would have been nice if it were true. Now it is convenient to continue to spread it also because it has a great charm: David defeating Goliath and the like. Everyone likes becoming famous.
I have two teenage children and I can assure you that they and all their peers don't even know what focaccia is. They prefer to gorge themselves with shady sandwiches and defrosted pizzas (made who knows where with who knows what) in noisy rooms that are always very full. In the McDonald's, at least hygiene was guaranteed, the workers had a contract, were paid regularly and were not exploited by working longer than expected. In the clubs that our children frequent, this is almost never true. And let's also forget about the quality of certain baked goods sold in some bakeries (including that of the small baker).
Go see the movie, but be aware that it is NOT based on a true story.
Does Clara write real things? Could it be that since 2005 every newspaper - even the New York Times - has made a mistake? We will continue to ask, but out there, is there anyone out there who knows more?
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