The Da Fiore Cookbook: Recipes from Venice's Best Restaurant [Hardcover]

Damiano Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2003

The Wine Spectator calls the family-owned da Fiore the best restaurant in Venice. The New York Times praises chef Mara Martin and her husband, Maurizio, as "the city's most respected restaurateurs," known internationally for their food, regional wine list, and hospitality.In his appreciation, Victor Hazan writes, "Marcella and I raise our glasses to what you have achieved and to what, since you are both so amazingly young still, you may yet accomplish." Now, in The da Fiore Cookbook, their son, Damiano Martin, pays tribute to his parents' vision,sharing their recipes and their passion for Venice.

Da Fiore is renown for its seasonal menus that follow the ebb and flow of the Venetian lagoon and the Aegean and Mediterranean seas along with the orchards and farms of the surrounding Veneto. When the lagoon closes for a few weeks twice a year to allow the fish population to replenish itself, the restaurant takes a rest as well, upholding its high standards of serving local fresh food.

In autumn, da Fiore's visitors are treated to dishes such as Fried Soft-Shell Crabs on Arugula and Orange Salad and hearty Porcini Mushroom and Onion Soup. When scallops are at their richest and meatiest during the winter months, Mara combines them with the natural sweetness of broccoli in Pennette with Sea Scallops and Broccoli Florets. Spring heralds in a host of vegetables, inspiring dishes such as Fusilli with Squid and Peas and Asparagus and Parmigiano Custard.

And in the summer months, Mara serves signature dishes such asRed Mullet Stars with Fresh Figs and Mint and the simple, yet elegantRolled Fillet of Sole with Zucchini. Desserts, too, are seasonal,ranging from the wintry Chestnut Mousse with Persimmon Sauce to a bowl of chilled Fruit Soup, a refreshing summertime treat, and the traditional Sweet Carnival Fritters enjoyed in early spring. There are suggested American substitutions for traditional Venetian ingredientsin all the recipes.

Accompany the Martin family as they throw open wide the doors to the magical city of Venice. Stroll through the markets of Venice with Mara as she shops for the freshest ingredients. Discover the city's rich culinary history and traditions through Damiano's delightful narrative. Explore the outstanding wines of the Veneto with Maurizio's wine-pairing suggestions.

Whether you've been to Venice or intend to travel there some day, The da Fiore Cookbook brings the unique spirit of Venice's Osteria da Fiore to your own kitchen.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Owned by its chef Maria Martin and her husband Maurizio, Da Fiore is a much-lauded Venetian seafood restaurant. Son Damiano Martin's The Da Fiore Cookbook offers almost 100 recipes from the restaurant, from antipasti to desert. Whether "traditional," such as Mediterranean-Style Ceviche or Marinated Striped Bass with Aromatic Herbs, or more original, like Fried Soft-Shell Crabs on Arugula and Orange Salad and Chestnut-Filled Calamari, the simply conceived but deeply flavorful dishes are uniformly exciting. Though the recipes are easy enough to prepare, their success for the home cook will depend largely on ingredient freshness—there's no hiding place in these dishes for less than the best. Cooks should also be aware that some of the ingredients called for--imperial shrimp, for example--are either unavailable here or, like John Dory Fillets, hard to come by. (In some, but not all cases, substitutions have been suggested.)

Apart from "entrees," the book offers a tempting array of soups, pastas, and vegetable recipes such as Asparagus and Parmigiano Custard, Penette with Sea Scallops and Broccoli Florets, and Porcini Mushroom and Onion Soup. A small dessert chapter yields delicious finales like Venetian Fried Cream and Sweet Focaccia with Figs, plus an enticing selection of cookie formulas. The author also provides a brief tour of Venice, plus a discussion of its unique "flavors." Also helpful is seafood buying instruction, which includes the insight that smaller fish are more delicate and sweeter tasting than larger specimens. The book is illustrated with color photos. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

According to Martin, Venetians have "famously adventurous taste buds." This taste for the exotic is due in part to the city's position at a crossroads of sorts, where East meets West. The ingredients themselves may not necessarily be exotic to Americans (many recipes feature familiar vegetables like radicchio and artichokes), but the combinations do surprise, such as the Guanciale-Wrapped Grouper with Broccoli and Thyme Souffle, or the Shrimp, Artichoke, and Scamorza Cheese "Pot Pie." However, much of the book's charm lies in the simplicity of the recipes, which generally don't demand complicated techniques. Martin, whose parents founded the 25-year-old Osteria da Fiore, sums up these dishes when he notes that Venetian cuisine is "humble and ambitious, rustic and refined, earthy and exquisite." Naturally heavy on fish-Martin is particularly fond of the popular Venetian fish red mullet as well as sea bass, shrimp and clams-the book offers an array of antipasti, primi piatti, zuppe and secondi piatti that should please chefs with a propensity for Italian fish dishes. Winning recipes include Baby Artichokes with Oranges and Parmigiano Shavings, Spaghetti with Clams, Rolled Red Mullet with Radicchio and Spinach, and Seared Tuna Slices with Rosemary. Although not every recipe has an accompanying photo, most do. And a section with tips on buying, storing, cleaning, scaling, filleting and cooking fish-along with basic recipes for fish broth and polenta and sidebars explaining Venetian staple ingredients-will encourage neophytes.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1 edition (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060090715
• ISBN-13: 978-0060090715
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #693,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genuine Venetian Cuisine, Worthy of the Hype, December 24, 2003

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Da Fiore Cookbook: Recipes from Venice's Best Restaurant (Hardcover)

Why would you want to buy another cookbook from an Italian restaurant, especially from one without a famous chef's name like Batali or Colicchio or Bartoli? I opened this book expecting to find reasons to dismiss this book as unworthy of our interest. I found no such reasons, and several reasons to give this book a reasonable amount of attention.

First, this is genuine Venetian cuisine, not Venetian cuisine interpreted by an American or English writer. The cuisine of the da foiore lives and breaths by the pulse of the Venetian fish markets and the seasons of fishing in the Adriatic. Recipes are also true to the region in focusing on rice and corn meal (polenta), and soft pasta dishes most common in the north, especially those close to the prime rice growing area in Europe. There is also an appropriate mix of Middle Eastern influences harking back to the days when Venice was THE spice merchant of Europe.

Second, the recipes are delightful, with a bright mix of the fish and an accompanying vegetable, changing slightly the Italian pairing of separate secondo and contorno dishes. I concur with the author's contention that these are indeed simple recipes. They may not be easy, but they should take less time than usual to master. Virtually all protein is seafood from the northern Adriatic, `right off the boat'. There is a high concentration of bivalve, cephalopod (squid, cuddlefish, and octopus), shrimp, and finfish recipes. There are few lobster or crab dishes and beef, chicken, and veal are not even listed in the index.

Third, this may be an Italian cuisine which may be most familiar to Americans after the southern Italian tomato drenched cuisine of tomatoes, hard pasta, and pizza. I was never a great fan of Tuscan dishes, but this cuisine backed by the wines of the Veneto, Bardolino, Valpolicella, Soave, and Prosecco is much more attractive to me than the Chianti of Tuscony or the hundreds of newer wines from Italy on the market. Then there is also grappa to make life just a little more interesting.

My most delightful discovery in this book is to find the word, `cicheti' for the Italian counterpart of the Greek and Turkish meze which has become a very popular subject of cookbook authors of late, who make a point of saying that Greek meze is not the same as antipasti. Another interesting discovery is that unlike much of the rest of Italy, Venetians are not horrified at the thought of putting cheese on fish, although they do not do it commonly with the very strong dried cheeses such as parmesan or pecorino romano.

Even though the book is written by a man, the true author of the recipes is the author's mother, true to the great Mediterranean tradition of cuisine being the woman's provence.

If you already have 20 or more Italian cookbooks, then you have to wrestle with your own obsessions to determine if this is worth the investment. At $35 without the celebrity byline, this may be a bit much, but I recommend it none the less, especially if you are a great fan of seafood.

4 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Global Top 5, May 9, 2005

By 

Matthew Hodgson (Tokyo) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Da Fiore Cookbook : Recipes from Venice's Best Restaurant (Hardcover)

I've not bought or read this book, however, what I can say is that this restaurant is unquestionably one of the top 5 restaurants I've yet had the pleasure of eating at. Finding it requires nerves of steel, especially if you are walking from San Marco, as it is to be found as an oasis of culinary excellence in a labrynth of time etched architecture. The service can be described with one word : class. The food, with a menu that changes daily depending on the ingredients available, was true art. This is not food of the nouvelle cuisine variety but rather food that is a direction indicator ~ this must be one of the leading edge restaurants in Italy, which is fusing old ideas with modern presentation. The after taste of the food was of unquestionably traditional tastes and flavours.