Antonio Viani and Fine Foods from Göttingen
Antonio Viani Importe is a family-run business from Göttingen that has been bringing Italian and European delicacies to Germany since 1973. It started with truffles for high-end gastronomy; today, the range comprises over 3,000 products from around 400 artisanal producers.
Antonio Viani Importe is not a manufacturer, but a seeker. The company itself produces very little, instead finding the producers who can: a family in the Abruzzo region that grills peppers, a bakery in Pinerolo that has been nurturing the same sourdough starter since 1922, a caper farmer on Salina. What these businesses create makes its way through Göttingen to the shelves in Germany.
A Sailor, a Translation Lesson, a Business
Antonio Viani comes from Pietra Ligure on the Ligurian Riviera and initially went to sea as an officer in the merchant navy. In the early 1960s, he came to Göttingen for love, where his wife Ingrid lived.
He initially had nothing to do with food. He built up an office machine business and sold typewriters—a business he continued to run on the side until 1986. The change came by chance: Viani was interpreting for an Italian summer truffle merchant at a Göttingen meat factory, and the favor turned into a commercial agency relationship.
The truffle trade grew quickly and to volumes that are hard to imagine today: up to 23 tons a year went to the meat industry, back then still as canned goods. In 1973, Viani founded his own import business as a result, because fresh goods were now being added, and with them, a completely different clientele.
German high-end gastronomy discovered Italy in those very years. Chefs like Eckart Witzigmann, Dieter Müller, and Harald Wohlfahrt asked for things that were not available here; Antonio Viani still remembers searching for morels, balsamic vinegar, and pink peppercorns. The assortment grew with every request.
Within a few years, the truffle merchant became a fine food importer. Once you start delivering truffles, people also ask for oil, vinegar, rice, and eventually, an entire range ends up in the warehouse. This explains why the collection still looks the way it does today: grown based on questions, not planned on a drawing board.
Three Thousand Products from Four Hundred Manufacturers
Today, the company carries over 3,000 products from around 400 artisanal producers from Italy and the rest of Europe. Viani introduced extra virgin olive oils, Ligurian pesto, and balsamic vinegars to Germany in the first place.
On our shelves, you will find a cross-section of this. The most popular item is the Prosecco DOC Spumante Brut, closely followed by the San Marzano tomatoes in the vintage tin, which come from Campania and rarely sit in the pantry for long. As for antipasti, it is the Cucunci, whole caper berries from the island of Salina, pickled in Prosecco.
Then there are the risottos in a bag, above all the truffle risotto with Carnaroli rice and real summer truffle, the Limoncello il Convento from the Sorrento Peninsula, and the Pfunds caramel cream from the Dresden milk shop, which shows that the house has long since ceased to limit itself to Italy.
Those who want to browse can find the categories under Antipasti and Pickled Goods, Canned Tomatoes, and Risotto. In between, you will find Colomba for Easter, Panettone for Christmas, and a red wine from Extremadura that shows how wide the radius has now become.
It is noticeable how much of this is seasonal goods. The Colomba is only available in spring, the Panettone only in winter, and the summer truffles are processed between mid-June and the end of August. An importer who buys this way has more work than one who carries the same twenty items all year round. You can tell by looking at the shelf.
Three Brands, and What Lies Behind Them
Viani carries three of its own brands, and they mean different things. Knowing this helps to classify what is on the label.
Under the Viani house brand, the company bundles products from outside businesses it has selected. Almost nothing is produced in-house, with one exception: the fresh pestos. So, if you buy a jar with the Viani label, you are buying the house's selection, not its production.
Viani and Co. is the name on the truffle line, ranging from tartufata and truffle butter to whole summer truffles in a jar. The company sources the fresh truffles from Umbria and Tuscany; Silvia Marchini, a native of Tuscany, manages this department at the company, and the canned goods are produced according to BRC standards by producers with whom Viani has been working for years.
Finally, Primopasto is the line for table olives and pickled vegetables, consisting of about 20 items. And here, as an exception, Viani names the businesses: the vegetables come from Ralò, a family business in Abruzzo, and the olives from a Venetian house that has specialized in them since 1955. Viani has visited both on-site.
Not Price, But Who Makes It, Decides
The company's attitude can be seen in the producers it carries, and they rarely have the cheapest offer. Good food means quality of life, according to Viani.
The businesses show what this looks like in practice: Devodier in Emilia-Romagna lets its raw ham cure for 24, 30, or 36 months and covers the ripening cellars with photovoltaics. Galup in Pinerolo has been refreshing its sourdough starter daily with water and flour since 1922. Cascina San Giovanni in southern Piedmont has been sourcing raw materials from the same farmers for over 25 years. The Turin ice cream maker Alberto Marchetti has his zabaglione cream bottled by a group of young people with disabilities.
These are not statements from a brochure, but decisions that cost money and take time. That is exactly the difference between an importer who moves containers and one who visits businesses.
It is also honest about what the company does not claim. For most of the house-brand jars, the origin is simply listed as Italy, without a region or company name. This is common in the fine food trade and could easily be covered up with a nicer story. Viani prefers to leave it unlabeled rather than invent an origin.
From the Warehouse in Göttingen to the Alimentari
The headquarters are located on August-Spindler-Straße in Göttingen, in a former Telekom building. From there, the goods are sent to delis, specialty shops, and gourmet departments throughout Germany and Austria.
In 1995, his son Remo Viani took over operational business after previously co-founding an advertising agency. He prepared himself thoroughly: first a three-month Italian course, then ten months traveling through the regions of Italy, from supplier to supplier. His father retired in 2006 at the age of seventy.
Under Remo, their own retail business was added. In 2010, the first Viani Alimentari opened on Lange-Geismar-Straße in Göttingen, and in 2019, the company took over the Kochhaus branches. Today, there are Alimentari stores in Berlin, Hamburg, Göttingen, Munich, and Stuttgart, in addition to the Cucina Viani in Göttingen.
For us, this company is above all one thing: the shortest path to producers we would otherwise have to search for individually. Anyone who wants to cook Italian and needs more than just pasta for it is in the right place with this collection. Even more from Italy can be found under Italy.
