Fresh lobster salad. (Photo provided to China Daily)
"It's very important to preserve the center of the plate. A nice piece of sea bass, with a bit of fresh asparagus or artichoke, for example, gives you a very good product."
Turco's kitchen reflects a food scene that has evolved a lot since a decade ago. Locals say the city was cluttered with mediocre restaurants that could thrive by relying not on good food but on their eye-candy locations near St. Mark's Square and other tourist hotspots.
Now, an influx of five-star hotels sited in vintage properties like Venice's medieval palaces have raised expectations and standards.
"We've had to catch up with places like Milan and London," Turco says, "to internationalize our outlook while hanging on to local flavors."
So what are his "musts" for an authentic Venetian menu?
"Cicchetti, of course," he begins, ticking off a list with his fingers.
"Risotto－we do four or five different ones, though it requires long prep to do well. Bread and croissants made in-house. Fresh fish every day. Like here in the cooking school," he says, "the goal is to transform what we find in the market into something special."
A beautifully restored environment like the Gritti Palace, of course, adds an extra patina of "special". The dining room spills out onto a dockside terrace－the choicest tables in fine weather.
Turco leaves me there as he returns to the kitchen for the lunchtime rush. I linger over a fantasy of baked cod and Parmesan cream inside a delicate phyllo pastry. Next comes a black risotto fragrant with squid ink and cheese－studded with succulent cuttlefish from the morning market foray. The recommended wine is rose, strawberry-fruity in the nose but nice and dry on the palate.
The sun shines cheerfully, and my outside table is so close to the passing gondoliers, sporting their striped shirts and pert straw hats, that I can almost touch them.
For visitors who have perhaps come for the ongoing Venice Biennale, or the Milan Expo just a short train ride away, it's mealtime magic in Italy's romantic city of canals.
Sure it's rice, but risotto can be an acquired taste for Chinese
The dish sounded great to a group of Chinese tourists in Venice. They had struggled over the menu－they understand English, but the Italian was complicating things.
"Try the risotto," the waiter finally said. "It's rice. You like rice, right?"
The six Chinese all nodded, two opting for the seafood risotto and the other four choosing the mushroom version.
