- 2 days ago
Bourdain explores the "Venice of locals," bypassing typical tourist spots to highlight authentic Venetian cuisine and culture. He visits the Rialto Fish Market, tastes "forbidden wine" on Sant'Erasmo, and highlights traditional spots like Trattoria da Romano in Burano for its famous seafood risotto.
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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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