“I’ve created a cuisine that makes me happy and fulfilled. Working in Venice is wonderful because it allows you to measure yourself against the whole world.” But that’s just the beginning: at Glam, Donato Ascani offers one of Italy’s finest culinary experiences. Here’s how and why.
The hotel
Venice is seeing an increasing number of luxury hotels, ranging from major chains to striking new additions. Palazzo Venart, part of LDC Hotels & Resorts—a Taiwan-based hotel group that has been operating in Italy since 2013—is, however, a truly unique place, because it feels as though you’re being welcomed into an elegant Venetian residence where, upon arrival by water from the Grand Canal, you enter through a beautiful private garden. Luana Mazzega, the property’s general manager, also sees the palazzo more as a home “enveloped in a bubble away from the chaos”. It is located in the Santa Croce district, in a patrician palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal, whose origins date back to the 15th century.
The building, historically known as Palazzo Bacchini delle Palme, underwent a long and meticulous restoration before becoming a five-star luxury hotel. There are only 17 guest rooms and suites, all unique and characterized by a distinctly Venetian style, featuring fabrics, velvets, frescoes, furnishings, and decorative details. This intimate scale allows us to build a personal relationship with our guests: “For us, it’s a bit like having friends over, with all the professionalism and the right amount of distance,” says Luana. And this means a constant yet unobtrusive presence: “I meet everyone and welcome them upon arrival. If I can’t, I’ll stop by to say hello during their stay.”
This approach—centered on personalized and consistent attention to guests—earned Palazzo Venart the “Unrivalled Luxury Leader” award, presented by The Leading Hotels of the World, of which the hotel is a member, after achieving a 100% Quality Score. Luana laughs it off: “I have a hard time believing it, but we had the highest score of all 450 hotels in The Leading Hotels of the World.”
The Restaurant
Further enriching an already strong identity is the dining experience: inside Palazzo Venart is, in fact, Glam, Enrico Bartolini’s two-Michelin-star restaurant led by Donato Ascani, with a culinary offering that we have no hesitation in describing as among the best in Italy.
Ascani, in addition to being a chef who goes against the grain—one who avoids the spotlight like the plague despite being an extremely sociable person—is one of the chefs most highly regarded by his peers, which is not all that common in this ultra-competitive world. When we ask him how he’s feeling today, he replies: “I’ve created a style of cooking that makes me happy and fulfilled. Working in Venice is wonderful because you get to measure yourself against the whole world. This city, with all it has to offer, is incredible. Right now I’m at home (in Ciociaria, ed.), cooking vegetables from my garden for my family. They’re good, but something’s missing: the ones from the lagoon have that extra something. And how do you explain that to them?”
One issue Donato never overlooks is the harmony among the people who work with him: “Our goal is to find the peace of mind and sustainability of a happy team—which isn’t always easy or a given. I’m working on it more and more; things have changed over the years. The young person who comes in, works for a year, and then leaves isn’t happy to leave—they’re just burned out: that’s a failure. So we need to keep them a little longer and make them feel at ease, with a balance between their personal life and work.”
How do you manage to achieve this? “I definitely have to be in the kitchen all the time. In ten years, I’ve never missed a shift. The guys appreciate that, even if every now and then they’re glad I have to go to a meeting—at least they get to relax for a moment (he smiles, ed.).” He continues: “Setting an example is the most important thing you can pass on to a twenty-year-old today. You teach them respect and attention to detail in their craft—and you do that only by being there for them, constantly giving them new challenges, and even giving them a gentle scolding when needed. Being constructive with the right approach—that’s what I’m aiming for.”
His approach to his relationship with guests is emblematic of the love Donato has for his craft: “I think that being in the kitchen, waiting for the customer, and giving them one hundred percent when they come from the other side of the world—not just to visit Venice, but also to taste your cuisine—is truly satisfying. You might say: ‘In Venice, it’s just a quick stop; they’ll never come back.’ We don’t see it that way; we believe they should already be eager to come back again. And together with Ottavio Venditto, we’re doing a great job.”
Speaking of Ottavio Venditto, named Italy’s best sommelier by AIS in 2014, who leads the dining room alongside the talented Elena Lanza and a team of highly professional young staff, he tells us: “Our mission is to check in with each table individually and create a personalized service for every guest. We’re very smart casual: a service that’s a bit laid-back, yet elegant at the same time. We don’t like stiffness; we want to build a relationship of trust. There’s the couple who wants some peace and quiet, so we’ll let them be; there’s the super-engaged guest who asks questions, wants to joke around, and laugh.” For Venditto, it’s also about how fine dining is changing: “Since they’re sitting at the table for two and a half to three hours, guests also want some fun, a joke, a little pampering.” The same approach is reflected in a wine cellar that houses about 950 labels: “I look above all for small vignerons—niche producers who work with passion—to give guests the opportunity to discover something different. However, we mustn’t forget the big names—you can’t just follow your own ego. By now, 90% of them trust me and let me decide.” And pairings are no longer limited to just wine but extend to “tea, herbal teas, sake, beer” and non-alcoholic pairings.
Venditto, although he began his career as a sommelier, interprets his role in a broader sense: “I’m a bit of an all-around professional—I handle wine but also all the other aspects of the restaurant: a maître-sommelier.” Returning to Donato Ascani, he never fails to be critical of himself, always striving to raise the bar even higher: “I’d like more time to travel, get to know producers, ingredients, and wine. I don’t have enough time to do even better research. I’d spend more time researching a product than sitting there making the same dish a thousand times.” And the real goal, according to the chef, is to reinvest every year in continuous improvement: “That’s the real goal: it’s neither Michelin nor the other guides. We work a little harder to hire another person and do even better; or to buy that china, a new Pacojet, to create another section of the kitchen. Those are the real goals you have to convey to your team. An extra star should be the result of a job well done—one you’re happy to do. The days are long, so the idea is to always work a little less and make sure people are happy. You have to get there—you have to build a team where everyone knows how to handle every task. Then you can afford to say, “You can stay home tonight—go ahead.” We have to organize ourselves so that everyone can take the time they need without the restaurant suffering. These things may seem trivial, but they’re essential for the staff’s peace of mind.”
Donato Ascani’s philosophy—along with his dishes and, of course, top-notch service—clearly explains why we consider his restaurant one of the best in Italy. But what does creativity mean to him? “You can come up with a dish in the morning at the market, at night in bed, or while you’re out to dinner. I’m creative only at certain times of the year. Why don’t I ever change the entire menu? Because I don’t feel up to it—I want to do things right. Besides, it’s not necessarily wrong to make the same dish again. If you make it the second year, it evolves in terms of precision and balance—it’s that subtle touch you refine: there’s a process. So creativity comes from anything and everything; it’s not like you say, ‘Let’s sit down with pen and paper and jot down all our ideas.’ I can’t do that.” His eyes light up: “The dishes you make for the first time—it might sound strange—but they have a totally different energy. In my opinion, that’s my creativity: I don’t know, I stop by the pastry shop, taste a hazelnut, then move on to the main courses, catch a whiff of a little piece of bell pepper from the pot: ‘Let’s try making bell peppers and hazelnuts.’ That’s where it all starts.”
The beauty of the food at Glam also lies in what you might call a sort of improvisation guided by authority: “If I make a dish a hundred times, it’s always different. I mean, I have those two or three set dishes, but the greens change, just like the mixed produce box they brought you from Sant’Erasmo. It’s not a style of cooking where I standardize everything; on the contrary, there are very few—very few—recipes. In pastry, yes. But in the kitchen, you have to trust your palate: when you make a sauce, tomatoes in August need one gram of salt, while in December they need two, just to give an example, because when you work with fresh ingredients, the flavor will always change depending on the season.”
Another hot topic is the difference between cooking styles: “There’s assembly-line cooking, but mine isn’t like that: you put the vegetables in water, add a drizzle of oil, plate them, and then we add the sauce. You can’t have vegetables that have been pre-cooked and sitting in the fridge since eight in the morning. We make everything—everything, everything—from scratch. A zucchini boiled that morning isn’t the same as one cooked right then and there. The dish might look beautiful, but it doesn’t have the same energy. I always tell those who work with me: you have to be able to debone a chicken, learn how to butcher a lamb, and cook a cut of meat. You have to understand the difference between one thing and another.”
Ascani also emphasizes that, with a restaurant as large as Glam, you can personalize the service by adjusting the details based on who’s sitting at the table—whether, for example, an American, an Italian, or an Asian. So: “You can tell that the risotto needs a pinch less salt, fewer anchovies, fewer capers. Those who work with you must understand the importance of this attention to detail”. And finally, the concept of the gesture: “The chef’s craft is the gesture. That’s what’s missing a bit today. And if, at twenty, you don’t know how to toss pasta or make risotto, you don’t have the basics. What they taught us ten or fifteen years ago: the small detail, the fresh leaf, the tiny bit of anchovy paste in tomato pasta. These are all things you can’t standardize: you have to teach the gesture and the palate, otherwise we’re just creating designers.”
The Dishes
Sitting down to a meal at Glam means knowing you’ll be surprised, no matter how high your expectations are. Donato Ascani’s words translate into a gastronomic language of highly refined immediacy—whether it’s an instant instinct or a carefully considered delight, as in the case of the unmissable, marvelous “acquadelle”—behind every dish lies pure enjoyment. The sequence of appetizers is impressive—it has become legendary among food enthusiasts—and would almost be enough on its own to make a complete lunch. But no. The bottom line is, you’ll have a blast.
As we explored the hidden vegetable gardens and lagoon produce, we sampled dvarious types of Cavallino zucchini served with a herb-infused Bernese sauce and caviar; as well as agretti with a light Pecorino fondue, capetonde, and lagoon clams; charcoal-grilled eggplant with kombu seaweed salad and mazzancolle; and radicchietto with lagoon herb pesto. ...and a delicious focaccia to mop up the sauce.
The chicken hearts with teriyaki sauce, chicory, and lemon zest are served before the “piadina” with garusoli, a delicate wasabi mayonnaise, and a bouquet of aromatic herbs. Next comes lamb sweetbreads, Mitilla mussels, and lagoon seaweed pesto.
It’s incredible what Ascani manages to do with a zucchini—in this case, sliced thinly and served with raw Chioggia scallops, caviar, a sauce with whole-grain mustard, and an oil infused with lovage and herbs. And since he had just butchered the lamb, Donato decided to serve its incredibly sweet lung, cut into strips, paired with clams and seaweed.
Of course, the now-classic grilled baby cuttlefish from the lagoon, served with two different sauces couldn’t be missing—the first made with trimmings from the cuttlefish themselves and the other with their ink. The dish was finished with a Swiss chard leaf from the island of Sant’Erasmo and a grilled cardoncello mushroom. Therisotto was absolutely delicious, with a perfect balance of different sweetnesses, based on a carrot purée also from the island of Sant’Erasmo; the smoky note came from the processing of the peels, the caramelization, and the addition of ras el hanout.
The tagliatelle with lagoon fish offal are also exquisite. Among the main courses, a textbook lamb: not to mention its liver, fragrant and tenderly sweet. The meal concludes with a fresh, creamy pepper sauce, citrus granita, and candied citrus fruits; served alongside is a juice made from the same citrus fruits (bergamot, bitter orange, grapefruit, and others) and ricotta ice cream with black lemon powder. Last but not least, a remarkable dessert featuring hazelnuts, salicornia, and cherries. Dining here continues to be a source of wonder.
Contact
Glam
Calle Tron, 1961, 30135 Venice, VE
Phone: 041 523 5676
