From the merchant navy to Ligurian cuisine — the story of the Viani family
Antonio Viani, born in Pietra Ligure on the Ligurian Riviera, came to Göttingen in the early 1960s for love — and stayed. He traded his former life as a naval officer for that of a food merchant because he did not want to do without the specialties of his homeland. In 1973, he founded Antonio Viani Importe GmbH, initially as a truffle importer: canned goods first, which were hardly known in Germany at the time, and soon fresh tartufi for top-class gastronomy. What drove him was the knowledge he had brought with him from his mother's kitchen — a craft that cannot be described in a wholesale catalog, but can certainly be tasted.
Today, his son Remo runs the company. He grew up bilingual in Göttingen, spent his summers with his nonna in Pietra Ligure, and got to know the kitchens and markets there that still shape the product range today. In 2010, he opened the first Viani Alimentari in Göttingen's city center — the first store of its own where the company also sold its specialties directly to private customers.
Producers instead of traders — how Viani selects its suppliers
What distinguishes Viani from an ordinary wholesaler is the way the product range is created: the team has been traveling through the growing regions for decades, visiting producers on the recommendation of friendly producers, and is present at the most important food trade fairs in Italy. As a result, the range now includes around 3,000 products from about 400 artisanal producers from Italy and Europe — from Sicily to Piedmont to Basilicata. The standard has remained the same as in the founding days: to find food that has actually emerged from the context in which it is traditionally produced — not optimized for export, but for one's own table.
In Göttingen, the team, which consists to a large extent of Italians, constantly tastes new products in the company's own kitchens. In this way, the selection does not remain theory, but remains grounded in taste. From the central warehouse in Göttingen, Viani supplies delicatessens, specialty shops, and department store sections in Germany, Austria, and beyond.
Olive oils, pasta, wines — what holds the Viani range together
The range extends from the classics — cold-pressed olive oils from small manufactories, balsamic vinegars in various degrees of maturity, handmade pasta, sugo, pesto, and antipasti — to rarities such as caper leaves from the island of Salina or fish sauce from the Amalfi Coast. Wines are also included: for example, the Aglianico del Vulture from Basilicata, one of the most powerful red wines from Southern Italy, which Viani carries in two bottlings (Gricos and Grifalco). What connects all products is their origin from clearly identifiable businesses — no anonymous industrial goods, but ingredients behind which there is a name, a location, and a way of working. Anyone who shops at Viani not only gets a product, but always the story behind it as well.
