00:23There are a lot of odd people in Venice, a lot.
00:49Venice is not going to let you forget that you're in Venice.
01:00I'm Anthony Bourdain.
01:02I write, I travel, I eat, and I'm hungry for more.
01:08Oh, you've got to get lost.
01:15No reservations.
01:18Oh, you've got to get lost.
01:45Venice has flourished her for centuries, the one-time base of her power.
01:48To my mind, Venice is the most extraordinarily beautiful city in the Western world.
01:53Her palazzos, her monuments, public spaces and cathedrals, unrivaled expressions of unfettered
01:59ambition and near limitless wealth.
02:02As the Venetians ruled the known world, they built a city-state that let people know it.
02:10Now, they're spectators in their own city, absentee landlords, witness to millions of tourists
02:16and cruise ship passengers a year.
02:18Come to Venice, see the square, feed the pigeons, take the picture, gondola ride, buy a carnival mask,
02:29every footstep pushing the whole gorgeous carnival down a little bit more into the murk.
02:42Being popular has other disadvantages.
02:44Venice has a reputation for crap food at high prices, and there's plenty of that for sure.
02:51But look a little deeper, right under the surface, a few steps back or off to the side from the
02:56thundering herd, are Venetians.
02:58The few, the proud.
03:00And they've got to eat somewhere, as they always have, and for a long time they've been
03:04keeping the good stuff for themselves.
03:10Over 1,500 years old, Venice was a city-state built on 117 small islands in a lagoon of the
03:16Adriatic Sea.
03:17It was the center and clearinghouse for everything good from everywhere else, built by what became
03:23really the original super-rich.
03:25Their apartments and their powerful navy kept them safe from the frequent wars of the time,
03:30not to mention a confusing maze of canals.
03:33Venice.
03:34Their spies and statesmen were among the most devious and effective in the world of treacherous
03:38and shifting alliances.
03:39Venice.
03:40Even their cuisine steadfastly resisted influence from the outside.
03:47Venice is not going to let you forget that you're in Venice.
03:50Venice.
03:51Today, 61,000 Venetians are left, down from 171,000.
03:56Venice.
04:24Which begs the question, whose Venice is it anyway?
04:31Venice.
04:34Venice.
04:37Venice.
04:40Venice.
04:48Venice.
04:49Venice.
04:50Venice.
04:51Venice.
04:51And, remarkably, it still pretty much is.
04:53Venice.
04:55Venice.
05:00Venice.
05:02Venice.
05:04Venice.
05:11Venice.
05:12Venice.
05:13Venice.
05:21Venice.
05:23Venice.
05:24Venice.
05:32Venice.
05:38Venice.
06:03Oh, here.
06:03Close.
06:03Oh, yeah.
06:03Venice.
06:04That's the kind of bar that serves these Cicchetti things.
06:06And, this Bakari?
06:07Cantina de Mori, which Gigi assures me is a good, typical, traditional way to start.
06:12As in Spain, you can make a night of bar hopping and nibbling these small bites, a bounce
06:17from place to place, eating what's particularly good at each, then moving on. But, Gigi says
06:22you might just as soon make a morning of it. Venetians are nonjudgmental in that way.
06:26That has your name on it. I think it says Gigi, right there.
06:30Eggs in the morning.
06:31It's good.
06:31A little hard-cooked egg with anchovy, some spicy copa, washed down, certo, with a glass
06:37or two of suave.
06:38How do you work after this? After this, it's impossible to work.
06:42Yeah, yeah.
06:42Impossible to work, yeah.
06:46Next, Pronto Pesce. Fast fish. A place with a more modern take.
06:51That's a meatball of swordfish with artichoke.
06:54Yeah.
06:55Oh, man, that's good.
06:56Oh, nice.
06:58Sardini.
06:58Si.
07:00Gratinati.
07:00Sardines gratinés.
07:02That is unbelievably good.
07:03This is truly one of the great things ever.
07:05These are more modern versions of this tradition, yes?
07:08I mean...
07:09Something more traditional, like the colors.
07:11Baccala Mantecato.
07:12Baccala Mantecato.
07:14Hey, give a taste of Baccala Mantecato.
07:16What does a Mantecato mean?
07:17It's like a mousse with oil of wine.
07:19Eh?
07:20Oh, that's fantastic.
07:21This is an old tradition, a little bite and a glass of wine in the morning?
07:24Yes.
07:25Only in Venice, in this area, or all over?
07:27Yes, only Venice.
07:28These drinks you have with Cicchetti, these many drinks, are called ombra, which I'm reliably
07:33assured means shade in Italian.
07:35That comes from the days when Venetians would flock to stands in the shade for an afternoon
07:39drink.
07:40You drink many ombra without Cicchetti is a problem.
07:46Yeah, that's how I live.
07:48Here there is no car.
07:50You have to walk.
07:51But you can fall in the canal.
07:53It's not good.
07:57After a considerable number of morning ombra, we decide to avoid canals altogether and make
08:02our slightly wobbly way to a baccaro with influences from Italy's neighbor to the north.
08:07And wine.
08:07All time.
08:08Always.
08:10Osteria al diavolo l'acqua santa.
08:12It's Gigi's personal favorite.
08:14And thanks to the sausage-eating country who brought us such contributions to modern
08:17culture as craft work and 99 Luftballons, we also have this stuff.
08:22Cool.
08:23Tony, c'è la testina di vitello.
08:25Delicious boiled calf's head and tripe, and musetto, which means little animal face.
08:30And who doesn't like that?
08:32Accompanied by good German-style mustard.
08:34This is good.
08:35This is really good.
08:38When I am little, I come here with my father, I remember.
08:43Your father brought you to this place?
08:46Yeah.
08:46How many years ago?
08:4730 years ago.
08:4830 years ago.
08:49Around here, there is many, many places.
08:53But now the time is changing.
08:55There is not too much.
09:00Coming up, Philip of Habsburg, Matisse, Hemingway and other famous guys dining on risotto so utterly
09:05perfect it remains unchanged after five generations.
09:09What if a bunch of really hot girls start showing up and they all want Cosmos?
09:12Who says he thinks he can make them stay even if he keeps offering the same thing?
09:22What'd you?
09:24How long will I just be?
09:29How long will I be?!
09:30What do you think?
09:33How long will I not be?"
09:33How long will I have western users?
09:34How long will Ible?
09:39How long will I go?
09:39How long will I be?
09:40How long will I put in my family life?
09:45How long will I be in my family life?
09:47To Romano, a patron of the arts.
09:50They are rare in these days.
09:52From his friend, Ernest Hemingway.
09:55Burano, 11th of November, 1945.
10:0124 bound volumes in the life of a restaurant.
10:05Volumes of guest posts from when they first opened.
10:08Signed.
10:09Matisse and Miro.
10:11Maria Carlos.
10:12Enrico Fermi.
10:15Artists, statesmen, authors, musicians.
10:18So here's some music.
10:20Somebody got a little ditty.
10:22Scribble drawings, expressions of gratitude, poetry, and prose.
10:30Philip of Habsburg came and had the rice, loved the rice, and said, I'll have more plates.
10:35And he said, I'm not going to be here anymore.
10:37I want you to come back.
10:38What is it about this place on the fairly remote, isolated outer island of Burano?
10:57Traditionally an island of fishermen.
10:59Row after row of bright pastel colored houses so the fishermen could see them back in the day when returning
11:04from sea.
11:07The women of the island were once master lace makers.
11:10Today, not so much.
11:15But what is left is well worth a 45-minute boat ride to this tiny island.
11:20Or at least, that's what Lori DeMori says.
11:22She's an American cookbook author and food writer who's been living in Italy for decades.
11:27There are two principal groups who come to Burano.
11:30Those shopping for the famous lace.
11:32And people like me and Lori who are looking for one thing.
11:35A perfected dish that can be found at this place.
11:38Da Romano.
11:39Local painters that started out with elected this place.
11:42You know, this was their hangout.
11:43This was the place they came to.
11:45And then, you know, the way it goes.
11:46And then visiting artists find out that that's where all the artists go.
11:50And then suddenly that's where everybody's going.
11:56From the 1800s, five generations of a single family have run this place.
12:01Handing down recipes from parents to children.
12:04Never deviating from simple, good things.
12:07The walls are covered with the work of long-dead admirers.
12:11And their signatures fill the guest book.
12:13But life and cooking go on.
12:16Hemingway and Matisse and Miro are gone.
12:18But Keith Richards comes straight here when in Venice.
12:21Keith Richards, he's right about everything.
12:24Fourth generation proprietor, Luigi Seno.
12:29Tony, you'll like this.
12:30He says this is heroic cooking.
12:34A lot of people who don't know much about traveling in a certain way,
12:37they want to have spaghetti and meatballs.
12:39And actually, he says to stay steadfast and say,
12:44you know what, this is good enough.
12:45It's not only good enough, it's perfect.
12:47And we're not changing.
12:49It's heroic.
12:50Does he agree?
12:51Does he feel a compulsion to innovate?
12:54No.
12:57The fifth generation, his son, Luca.
12:59He's for simplicity.
13:01And he thinks that this tradition is the right show.
13:05What if a bunch of really hot girls start showing up here every night?
13:08It's like sex in the city, but younger and hotter.
13:11And they all want cosmos.
13:16He says he thinks he can make them stay even if he keeps offering the same thing
13:21and offering for the last hundred years.
13:26That would include stuff like this assortment from the lagoon.
13:29Cuttlefish roe, sea snails, baby octopus, and mannus shrimp.
13:34All cooked in the only restaurant kitchen in Venice allowed to still use a wood fire.
13:40It's a lot of work.
13:41Wood has to be brought.
13:42Bring in the wood.
13:43It's also bloody hot in there.
13:45It's summertime, and they've still got this thing raging.
13:47And a lot of people say to them, like, why on earth would you do it?
13:50And, you know, the flavor is not the same.
13:53And this is something that you're going to probably see.
13:59Polenta, grilled polenta.
14:00Grilled polenta, white.
14:02Polenta is a fundamental staple of Venetian cuisine.
14:05Usually, but not always, white cornmeal.
14:07Usually, but not always, grilled.
14:09And then the sardine is cooked in vinegar.
14:12And so you have this sort of sweetness from the onion and the vinegar, which preserves it.
14:17That's delicious.
14:18One of my favorite fish, by the way.
14:19Sardine?
14:20Yes.
14:21A lot of flavor for your money, no?
14:22But really, if there's one dish worth crossing the lagoon for, if not half the world, it's this.
14:28It's a dish that all alone makes Venice, and Burano in particular, a place you just have to visit.
14:35Go risotto.
14:54Fish, risotto.
14:55We used to be a bit coddled and cuddled and caressed in order to behave.
15:01In the brilliant film Big Night, there's a painful moment where an ignorant customer looks at an authentic, perfectly prepared
15:07order of seafood risotto and complains, it's rice.
15:13And yes, go risotto is rice, but what rice?
15:18So this is what we're having, which they're really famous for.
15:21Questa è proprio la classica ricetta dei pescatori.
15:24So this is a real classic fisherman's recipe.
15:26Nel primo novecento.
15:27Of the early 1900s, made with this fish called go.
15:31Go is not a prized fish.
15:32It's one of those fish that burrow down ugly little fat fish.
15:37A lot of bones, so it's not a fish you'd want to eat as a fish, but it's a fish
15:41you'd want to use for flavor.
15:42So they make this broth out of it.
15:44They have to simmer it really, really gently because if they break it up, it lets out this black, bitter,
15:51and it really isn't nice.
15:52The way they handle the broth, it's like, don't disturb the little fish.
16:07Simmer the broth.
16:08In goes the rice.
16:10Mix it.
16:11And that's all that happens is they keep adding the broth.
16:14An amazing confluence of physical forces of the universe come together into a substance that can only be described as
16:22otherworldly.
16:23And that just goes slowly, slowly, slowly.
16:26The fats and essences of a fish.
16:28The textural magic of arborio rice.
16:30A miracle of gradual, gradual absorption.
16:33And then to Monte Cate, they're trying to make it creamy without adding cream.
16:38A kind of alchemy.
16:39Movement-altering texture, texture-enhancing flavor.
16:43It sort of hits the pan and flips the rice so it's creamy.
16:48There is risotto, and then there is great risotto.
16:51And then, once in a very, very long time, there is truly great risotto.
16:57It's just that go.
16:58It's just the broth.
16:59It better really be good or there's nothing else.
17:02This is what they mean when they say truly great.
17:06And I guess two centuries of artists recognize that too.
17:09It looks so plain.
17:11It's just white.
17:11Right.
17:12And then you taste it.
17:13It's like the distilled essence of the Adriatic.
17:15It's absolutely full of flavor.
17:17Oh, man, that's beautiful.
17:19This is absolutely fantastic, by the way.
17:21The flavor is superb.
17:23And look at how these are like little pearls.
17:25They're definitely all keeping their own personality.
17:28I absolutely agree to heroic cooking.
17:33La cucina eroica.
17:35Coming up.
17:39Always snorty, snorty, snorty.
17:41There's more to Venice than humping gondolas up and down the canals, like moving huge tankers around.
17:46That line breaks.
17:46It'll rip your head clean off.
17:48And as always, I find myself pitching in.
17:51Which means that if we stay here, we'll be crushed like a proverbial pancake.
18:00No reservation.
18:04No reservation.
18:11The truth is, we feel ourselves to be a bit superior to everybody else.
18:16Because we have an ancient culture, and most people who come here, they don't have that.
18:22What is a Venetian?
18:24What are Venetians like?
18:26And what do they do?
18:28To the casual visitor, it's the guy who pilots the gondola around town.
18:32Or some wealthy mummy from an old and impeccably despotic family, still living in a corner of one of the
18:37grand palazzos.
18:39But there are other Venetians, and in fact, another Venice.
18:51This is Laurie's friend Stefano Benedettelli, born and bred Venetian.
18:56And this is Venice, too.
18:59Stefano is a mooring man, and he makes his money, as does much of Venice, from the vitally important commercial
19:05industrial complex of Porto Marghera.
19:07A place they don't show you in the tourism films, but as vital to Venice's everyday life and survival as
19:13the Grand Canal.
19:16We wouldn't live just selling postcards.
19:19Chemicals here, energy, oil and coal over here, and cargo that way.
19:2785% of the economy of Venice passes through this port.
19:33Looks like New Jersey, which is where I grew up, and so far it smells a lot better.
19:43Steffano's job, to get big freaking ships, like this one, tied up and safely docked.
19:49Always snowy, snowy, snowy.
19:52How many ships this size come in a day?
19:54About 55, 40.
19:58First, the tugs do their job.
20:00The tugs sort of receive the boat from the sea.
20:04Right, and I saw it turn around.
20:06It helps turn around.
20:06It's like being a big bull in a small time shop.
20:09So this is like really delicate work.
20:11Yeah.
20:13Then it's kind of like glassuing the world's largest bull, only lots bigger and filled with highly flammable toxic chemicals
20:20and slower moving and like floating.
20:23Okay, bad metaphor.
20:26The ship's mates drop their mooring lines to Steffano and his crew, who dart around threading the needle, as it
20:31were, again and again.
20:33Gulliver and the Lilliputians come to mind.
20:35Now you just hitch up the mule train and pull them in, right?
20:37Which means that if we stay here, we'll be crushed like a proverbial pancake.
20:41That line breaks, it'll whip your head clean off.
20:46There'll be a little pink mist in a nubbin left where your head used to be.
20:49Bet you when that happens.
20:51Oh, they're really good.
20:52I mean, you know, there's some real choreography going on here.
20:55It's sort of like ballet or a Japanese bondage film.
20:58Not that I've seen any of those.
21:00I hooked this up myself, by the way.
21:02It's doing my bit to help the economy.
21:04Come on, little fella.
21:04Come on in to port.
21:05Bring her on in, boys.
21:07Good job.
21:08I think it's Miller time.
21:17The pasta is fundamental.
21:19So, like good Italians, pasta is fundamental.
21:22Fundamental.
21:23Is lunch the big meal of the day or is dinner?
21:26Apranzo.
21:26Lunch.
21:27Lunch.
21:27Lunch time.
21:28In this case, when our planned scene falls through, a last-minute choice at any old place.
21:34Stefano picks Trattoria Borghi in historic Venice.
21:37And naturally, it turns out to be perfect.
21:39Ordinarily, most of the time in the cafeteria.
21:42Often, they go on the board of the boat.
21:44How are the cooks?
21:45Benissimo.
21:45Really?
21:46Benissimo.
21:47Basically, those guys are on the boat for months.
21:50And if the food is no good, the cook's thrown on the board.
21:52Ciao.
21:53Ciao.
21:54We're joined by some of Stefano's colleagues just as the food arrives.
22:00Oh, bello.
22:01Which works out just fine for everybody because there's lots of it.
22:05Sardines and onions, typical, ubiquitous.
22:07Gotta have the bacala montecato and some seafood, maybe some grilled vegetables.
22:12What is the common personality type?
22:14Is there a common personality type?
22:19Slightly diffident.
22:21Not quick to hand out the friendship.
22:23If you earn it, it's for life and the sure thing.
22:28Everybody seems to know each other here.
22:29You know everybody at least by sight, and if not, you actually really know.
22:35Next up, pasta.
22:37Because without pasta, the meal is a sin against God and everything that is good and decent in the world.
22:42In this case, some clams and mussels from the lagoon, and not too much garlic, and some good olive oil.
22:48Spectacular in its simplicity, and it's being unspectacular.
22:53Who are the worst f***ing tourists there are?
22:58It's not a nationality, it's a sort of tourist, it's the day-tripper.
23:02Ah, so they come in on the cruise ship?
23:04Or just on the train?
23:05Non hai la possibilità di accelerare.
23:07There's kind of this difficulty, because rushing does not exist in the Venetian culture.
23:12Venetian culture needs to rush.
23:13And so, it's one thing that creates this instant divide.
23:17Go rush.
23:18Run if you want.
23:19You know, there is no rushing.
23:25The truth is, we feel ourselves to be a bit superior to everybody else.
23:30Oh, that's okay.
23:31We have an ancient culture, and most people who come here, they don't have that.
23:35I think that's a completely reasonable attitude.
23:37Lui, capisce?
23:39I mean, you know, look around.
23:42So the world has to learn to adjust to Venetian time.
23:45Yes.
23:48Pasta and time, ordinary things, birthrights.
23:52Another day in Venice.
23:55What the hell are you trying to do?
23:57There isn't anything that's like a real Irish fish and chips shop.
24:00You can eat in some place that would make food for, well, you.
24:02That's it.
24:04It's a real thing.
24:05This is my answer to the Atkins side.
24:07It's a chip sandwich.
24:08I'm already a Lipitor, I should point out.
24:11This is wrong.
24:12That's a sandwich.
24:14That's great.
24:15Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations, Washington, D.C.
24:18Next Monday at 10, only on the Travel Channel.
24:28No Reservations.
24:40Time, Venice's seeming timelessness, the assumption that, well, she's been here, she
24:45surely always will be, is a central irony.
24:56Tourists and short-time visitors can never fully grab Venice.
25:00Staying is difficult and increasingly pricey.
25:03Costs rise, the number of natives shrinks, the buildings themselves slowly crumble.
25:08A living museum of millennium-old masterworks, inexorably dying.
25:13Artists and poets from elsewhere have always been transfixed by her noble rod.
25:18You must remember, looking out of the window is probably the biggest waste of time in life.
25:22But what else can one do if one has to do nothing with it whatsoever?
25:27Following in the footsteps of fellow Englishmen besotted with Venice, like Lord Byron, artist Geoffrey Humphreys came to Venice 40
25:34years ago, coming, for instance, for what one sees from his window.
25:39I found myself in a different dimension and couldn't get out of it.
25:49There was an artistic community here, and a feeling.
25:54Maybe I was going back in time, but I wanted to always go back in time.
25:58Don't we all?
25:58All that and the natural light makes painting, like the city itself, a slowly passing thing.
26:05Geoffrey lives on the Giudecca, the large island saddling Venice proper.
26:09Nobody would touch the Giudecca.
26:11It was Isra di Nazaria.
26:14Once a kind of low-rent refuge for the broke and bohemian classes.
26:18Now, as with so many other formerly industrial districts, all the tits.
26:22Posh hotels, the scourge of hipness spreading like chlamydia.
26:25Geoffrey, unsurprisingly, is not too happy about the change.
26:31Geoffrey paints portraits, often casting contemporary Venetians as figures from the past.
26:36Today, he arrests time by capturing his wife and daughter.
26:39Even while the late afternoon daylight, his favorite source of illumination, fades and slowly dies.
26:47With a few strokes, he freezes this moment in time.
26:51Woman with child.
26:53Late afternoon.
26:54Venice.
26:55Never to happen precisely like this, again.
27:01There it is.
27:03There it was.
27:10Well, we came here one lunchtime and ate in the garden.
27:13It was totally empty.
27:14Wooden chairs and benches.
27:17Geoffrey leads me back in time to a favorite restaurant of his younger, hungrier days.
27:21The atmosphere, it was so rickety, it was wonderful.
27:24A meal would cost a thousand lira.
27:26Geoffrey's Venice can never be the same as the Venice of those born to it.
27:30He knows it.
27:31Yet he's part of a grand tradition, a world of misfits for whom Venice is a stage.
27:35And that, too, has nostalgia, rites of passage, and special entree for certain professions.
27:40One of yours.
27:42One of yours.
27:42Yes, absolutely.
27:42There was always a table here for artists, a tavola di artisti.
27:47And all these wonderful artists, they used to come in and sit.
27:49This is a place with a payment plan not unique to these parts.
27:53Enlightened view of extending credit.
27:55A lot of these paintings are extending credit.
28:00Locanda Montin, an old, very old school trattoria.
28:04Simple classics made well.
28:06A place about which Venetians and particularly long-time expats tend to be sentimental.
28:10Very likely because of their one-time view that art was acceptable as legal tender.
28:15The world was very different.
28:16There were no credit cards, but there was credit in a funny way.
28:19My bill got so heavy, so he picked up my paintings from an exhibition.
28:23And I told him to select one for himself to pay my, cover my bill.
28:28When I got back, I said, where's the picture?
28:29And he said, it sold it.
28:30And I said, how much for?
28:31He said, eat, eat, eat.
28:34This is a mantis shrimp.
28:36I'm afraid you have to eat these by hand.
28:38Buon appetito.
28:39Oh, boy.
28:40They've gone overboard.
28:41Pasta in red sauce.
28:43Very happy with us.
28:45So what did you call this?
28:45L'escapata.
28:47Just blasted tomato, garlic, and pasta.
28:50Mm-hmm.
28:50Mm.
28:51As we settle into Armillo, I asked Jeffrey what he remembers most about coming to Venice
28:55as a young artist.
28:56When I came here, everybody, even the vegetable sales or whatever, they all know art.
29:03It's their life.
29:04Michelangelo, big names.
29:06Well, you kind of can't help it.
29:07You walk down the street.
29:08It's in their churches.
29:10You're tripping over stuff.
29:11I learn a lot from the street.
29:13People look in my way and they say, ah, I don't agree.
29:17And they say, sir, you're just following the sun.
29:19You know, meaning I keep moving the shadow, which is right.
29:22And then I say, ah, and then you're frightened of the void.
29:25Ah.
29:26You just gave us some passers-by from the Venetians.
29:29I picked up a lot of education for the street.
29:32In a city where art is a birthright everywhere you look, the streets are gallery and everybody
29:37an art critic, this artist has found a Venice of his own.
29:42Up next.
29:43Okay, this is a forbidden wine.
29:45Why?
29:46Lithium.
29:46Ah, cool.
29:47And if you get drunk with that, probably you have some problems.
29:49Yeah, like going blind, but when was the last time I let heady health concerns get in the
29:53way of a good buzz?
30:01No reservation.
30:06The Venetians, they lasted more than the Roman Empire's thousand years.
30:11What constantly surprises about Venice is what lies beneath.
30:15That all along she's been self-sufficient in seafood and still produces just like the
30:20old days.
30:21That some things other than the buildings have decidedly not yet disappeared.
30:25The same wonderfully dysfunctional system which allows her to crumble also keeps her gloriously
30:31unchanged.
30:32And one thing that hasn't changed is the fact that the island of St. Erasmo remains to a
30:37great extent Venice's private green market.
30:41Ciao, Tony.
30:41Good to meet you.
30:42Nice meeting you.
30:43Nice meeting you.
30:44So where are we going?
30:44We're going to St. Erasmo to see the islands and the gardens and this friend of mine,
30:50we taste some forbidden wines.
30:53Forbidden?
30:54Yeah.
30:54Oh, I like it.
30:55And St. Erasmo, that's the garden of Venice.
30:57It's a proper garden.
30:58Which boat's yours?
30:59Nice.
31:01All right.
31:02Sixties.
31:03That was my era.
31:04Also mine.
31:06Taking me to St. Erasmo, Cesare Benelli.
31:08Chef, restaurateur, and a true Venetian.
31:11It's always been sort of the vegetable basket of Venice.
31:16It's been the garden since the 15th century.
31:19But I mean, I'm surprised even now that so much of the food still is sourced here.
31:25Yeah, that's, yeah, right, that's exactly, I'm surprised myself.
31:38I'm famously not exactly thrilled by fruits or vegetables, but perhaps that's because
31:43I wasn't born Venetian.
31:48St. Erasmo is an isolated ecosystem unique in the world.
31:51A metaphysical mix of soil and salinity, which famously produces some of the best fruits and
31:57vegetables found anywhere.
31:58We take a short trip around the island with Cesare's friend, Massimo.
32:04Trees bursting with ripe figs.
32:06Mmm.
32:07Man.
32:09That's one of life's great treats.
32:11It reminds me of opium's hobbies.
32:13You know, they drip like that, too, now that I know.
32:16Ethereal grapes.
32:17A perfection of eggplant.
32:19This is very fresh.
32:21Oh, that's great.
32:21That's a professional basil slicing job there.
32:24Tomatoes, which convince you you've never actually had a tomato before.
32:28Drizzle with a little olive oil.
32:29It's nice to be reminded of how good a tomato can be.
32:32Baked, you know, 10 minutes before.
32:34Yeah.
32:34It's a near-religious experience.
32:44Of course, there's the Holy Trinity.
32:46Some nice sliced salami, some good cheese, and fresh country bread.
32:50And don't forget the local beverage, a wine known as Fragolino.
32:54Finally, the fun part.
32:56Okay, this is a forbidden wine.
32:58Why?
32:59It's done with, we call it American grape.
33:01I guess it's Concord grape.
33:02During the fermentation, produces methyl alcohol.
33:06Right.
33:06In very small percentages.
33:09But it's above the percentage admitted.
33:12Right.
33:13For years, people loved this humble, local wine for its delightful taste of strawberries.
33:17The problem, though, is that too much allegedly makes one go blind.
33:21And if you get drunk with that every day for 30 years, four years, probably you have some problems with
33:26the methyl.
33:26I don't think it's more harmful than a martini or a straight vodka.
33:31Salud.
33:32Cheers.
33:33Salud.
33:33A la vita.
33:35And I love rough local wines, a taste of the earth you drink them on.
33:38So the whole possible blindness thing, not really a concern.
33:43Love it.
33:44Perfect with this.
33:44I think it goes very well with this.
33:46Do you ever take this for granted?
33:48I don't, I haven't met anyone in Italy who takes their food for granted.
33:51I'm just amazed by that and envious, frankly.
33:53This is a mark of a great food culture.
33:55Right.
33:55Despite an afternoon of much wine, Cesare and I survived to dine at his well-known and much-loved restaurant,
34:02Alcovo, in Venice's Arsenal neighborhood.
34:04Between lunch and dinner, he scoured the lagoon, hopping from island to island, looking for these, the first moeque of
34:12the season.
34:13Tiny, tender, baby soft-shell crabs.
34:15I'm a huge fan of soft-shells.
34:17You know, when they're tiny or relatively small and soft, those big leather backs, not for me.
34:22You cut the, in the middle of the ice, because when you fry them, otherwise they explode and they absorb
34:29the oil.
34:30It's a popular kitchen accident, the exploding soft-shell crab trick.
34:34They explode in the oil and splatter your eyes.
34:39With Port Orson's sizzling soft-shell crab jizz into your face, oh man, that hurts, let me tell you.
34:45But then again, soft-shell crab jizz went deep-fried.
34:47Oh baby, it hurts so good.
34:49So, how long have you been open here?
34:51Since 86.
34:53Did Venetians accept this place immediately, or did it take some time?
34:56No.
34:56In the beginning, it was more creative than it is now.
35:00And then, knowing the products, I realized that it was not worth it.
35:05To create on top of this clear flavor and beautiful fish, and the Venetians, they start accepting it.
35:12I'm speaking to more and more chefs in my travels, who have come to this crossroads in their life that
35:18you seem to have, where they say, you know, this is good enough.
35:20Simplicity, the pure ambition to take great ingredients and try very, very hard to just not screw them up.
35:27It's illustrative here to compare and contrast with the French.
35:30In France, the chef is the star.
35:32Here, it's all about the ingredients.
35:35Really great.
35:36So delicate.
35:38Our first dish is a carpaccio of wild sea bass with pink peppercorn, chives, and basil oil.
35:45This is really, really good.
35:48Next dish, spider crabs served with its own row.
35:53This is very elegant food.
35:55Our third dish, fried zucchini and soft-shell crabs with wild fennel, lying on a bed of crispy fried potatoes.
36:02Oh, they're so cute.
36:04Fantastic.
36:05Oh, man.
36:07These are very nice.
36:08You see the menu?
36:10It's written, no salt and without lemon.
36:13In order to invite the customer now to ask for lemon, because lemon here ruins everything to me.
36:21Tony, do you really need lemon?
36:23No, you don't.
36:24And as is always the case in Italy, it seems they know when to say when.
36:29Boy, do you want to eat something?
36:32I...
36:32What?
36:33You're...
36:33Well, okay, maybe not.
36:35Do you still have room?
36:36What are they prepared?
36:38The frito piccolo.
36:40Yeah, so...
36:41Yeah, I think we're just about done.
36:45Okay, we're not eating all of this.
36:47Oh, man, look at that.
36:48Oh, man.
36:49Oh, ma, enough.
36:51Up next.
36:52Oh, man.
36:53Wow.
36:54That's the creature from the Black Lagoon.
36:57Yes.
36:58Inky teeth, blackening, sea creature goodness.
37:00Anytime you find the Italians and the Chinese doing the same thing, it's probably because it's a really good idea.
37:14No reservation.
37:20Lido Island.
37:21An 11-mile-long sandbar probably most famous is the setting for Thomas Mann's classic novel of homoerotic longing and
37:28terminal illness, Death in Venice.
37:30Real upbeat film, too.
37:31Lots of yucks in that one, I can tell you.
37:33The grand seaside resorts of another aid still attract a who's who of international douchedom.
37:39But me, I'd sooner be seen at a crackhead rodeo than set foot on the beach here in Cabana Land.
38:03But this being Venice, just a couple of blocks back from the inferno, lives our friend Stefano, the mooring man
38:09and his family.
38:10A decidedly different, more low-key setting.
38:13A house, a backyard, kids running around, grandma in the kitchen.
38:18You know this is going to be good, right?
38:22Hey, la mama.
38:23She's the head chef in this house.
38:25Does everybody's mother make this dish the best?
38:28She.
38:33Pire, the family matriarch, still apparently happy to stand for hours on end, painstakingly making family meals from heirloom recipes.
38:41She says she wouldn't have it any other way.
38:45Venice's great restaurants, to a great extent Italy's, succeed or fail to the degree that they evoke this kind of
38:54cooking.
38:55To my mind, certainly, Italian cooking is home cooking.
38:59And today, I'm really happy, it's Stefano's home.
39:03What had been a heavy, suffocating, late summer heat lifts with a nice, sustained breeze off the Adriatic.
39:09Through the curtains of this tiny family kitchen, onions start to cook.
39:15Family members help out.
39:17A little of this, a little of that.
39:20Ingredients measured out in practiced increments by hand.
39:32Do you know that rule?
39:35Bad manners to let the pasta get cold.
39:38That's so pretty.
39:41We start with bigoli, a thick, tubular, long-cut pasta, like a hollow spaghetti, in a sauce of slow-melted,
39:48salt-cured anchovies.
39:49As with nearly everything on the menu, it's labor-intensive.
39:55So you have to start when you know that you want to have the pasta, you have to start three
39:58days ahead.
39:59Three days ahead.
40:04So she said, you have to kill the onions.
40:06The onions have to die.
40:07And their death is that they just dissolve and give themselves up.
40:14Oh, you mean during the cooking process?
40:15So you melt them.
40:17You say melt, and she says kill.
40:19Lots of pepper and white wine.
40:21Does everybody's mother make this dish the best?
40:24You know what I mean?
40:24Si.
40:25Si.
40:27It's indescribably flavorful, and it's just the right balance of sauce to starch.
40:31Sauce, more condiment than main event, as my friend Mario might say.
40:35Mmm, mmm, mmm.
40:37Oh, man, that's fantastic.
40:39Oh, wow.
40:41Wow.
40:42That's the creature from the Black Lagoon.
40:44Yes.
40:45Exciting.
40:48Cuttlefish from the Lagoon, cooked in its own ink, and served with fresh, slow-cooked polenta.
40:55The polenta, still steaming, is cut at the table with a thin thread, and then all that goodness luxuriates in
41:02an inky bath on your plate.
41:04Does anything else that turns your teeth black taste as good?
41:06Any time you find the Italians and the Chinese doing the same thing, it's probably because it's a really good
41:13idea.
41:18Oh, yeah.
41:19We're having pretty much all of the greatest hits this afternoon.
41:21That's the best.
41:22And the most famous of Venetian dishes, the classic liver and onions, fegato veneziana.
41:28Sweat the onions, sear the liver, deglaze with wine, cook through, and serve.
41:35It's just a wonderful, wonderful flavor.
41:39Onions are a miraculous flavor.
41:40You can make an onion taste so many different ways, depending on how you treat it.
41:44No mystery here, only a delightfully sweet, sour, savory symphony of awful.
41:54I'd like to ask both moms here, when you go out to a restaurant, what makes them angry?
42:02If there's no passion, it's...
42:04Passion, and then another P word, which is patience.
42:06Patience.
42:07Which, it abounds.
42:11She likes to eat her own food.
42:12If she's home by herself, she makes herself a lovely meal all by herself.
42:15I don't think she's going out very often.
42:18And quite simply, it's easy to see why.
42:21This is one that's lucky to be alive.
42:23I like my job moments.
42:25Hmm.
42:26A perfect afternoon, the kind of afternoon I wait for, hope for, and live for.
42:32An Italian family at a backyard picnic table, grandma cooking.
42:35A scene from a past, not my own.
42:38From a movie I never lived, but always wanted to be in.
42:50All things must pass.
42:52Day turns to night.
42:54Art is long, life is short, as the saying goes.
42:56But in the end, even art grows old, crumbles into nothingness.
43:01Nothing lasts forever, however hard we try and hold it close.
43:06Maybe that's what's held our gaze year after year since the Venetian Empire ended.
43:11It's the slow decline.
43:13The long and glorious death.
43:15The rising damp.
43:17The sinking walls.
43:18Beautiful, truly beautiful things in peril.
43:22And yet, look now, one thinks in Venice.
43:25A city millions of tourists have yet been unable to ruin.
43:30Look.
43:31Now.
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