In Venice, a very young team interprets the lagoon territory with an international twist and range: in the dining room Benedetta Fullin, in the cellar Manuel Trevisan, behind the glass window of the open kitchen a promise of Italian cuisine, Salvatore Sodano. In perfect tune.
The restaurant
Somewhat hidden in the maze of the calli and bridges over the canals, the restaurant Local has been making waves for almost ten years, when on the initiative of Benedetta and Luca Fullin it began to read in a different way an area that cannot but be called special, marked by unusually young and contemporary accents.
And already the rooms have a special charm, with 5,000 murrines set into the floors, the small open kitchen, the cellar crammed with large formats on the canal, and the wooden furnishings crafted by Remo Pasquini.
Over the years in the gondola have climbed professionals of stature such as Matteo Tagliapietra, who won the Michelin star, and Manuel Trevisan, a sommelier who boasts experience at Cera and Dinner by Heston (Blumenthal) in London. Now it's time for Salvatore Sodano, a young chef from Campania who has his second, big chance here.
The chef
Born in 1985, Salvatore is the son of two traditional cooks, who tried hard to dissuade him and his brother Francesco from the temptation to follow in their footsteps. After high school science and a degree in Food Science and Technology, however, the vocation prevailed and the cursus honorum among the stars began.
"At Oliver Glowig's in Rome, I had my first major experience, moved by a desire to make a quantum leap, participating in the two-star achievement. Being German, he had a particular elegance and was extremely strict. But I wanted to see what was happening abroad, and I worked with Massimiliano Blasone, at Nikita's, at Enoteca Turi and at Claridge's in London with Simon Rogan, who was carrying out stimulating experiments in a New British key, from fermentations to Japonisations, to the ripening of proteins in wax."
"With my brother we then met again for three years at Cape Bear Lighthouse, where we shared chef responsibilities. I was particularly in charge of baking, pastry and fermented foods, but the menu was co-signed. To this day we constantly compare ourselves, because we have a very similar vision of cooking, both technically and in concepts. We like concreteness and the pleasure of food, but we search for a palette of flavors that break out of the standard, in continuous progression. We prefer restaurant ingredients, but we interpret them with an international flair."
Incredible to say, when he arrived at Local in 2020, through the mediation of mutual friends, Salvatore had never seen Venice. It was Benedetta and Manuel who introduced him to it. "I remember in particular a boat trip with a fisherman, who showed us the places where the fish come up or spawn and the different types of wild plants. I saw the whales and the different habitats in the northern part of the lagoon. Because Venice is a very small part of a great ecosystem, which is not only fish. Between Cavallino, Sant'Erasmo and Pellestrina there are artichokes, ducks and many other excellences, which I then tasted in the scattered taverns frequented by old Venetians."
The next step could only be to build a network of local suppliers, with whom he was initially at the Rialto market in the morning, including three fishermen and two farms, in Sant'Erasmo and towards Padua. Almost daily deliveries arrive from them, compatibly with the difficulties of the locations, since space in Venice is always scarce and the kitchen does not allow for storage. It is on Thursdays, when the Local closes for lunch, that they process stocks and much of the protein, such as the matured fish; then each day the fresh material starts again.
The result is a young, technical and contemporary cuisine, yet firmly anchored in places. It benefits in the dining room from the professionalism of Manuel Trevisan, author of an acrobatic quadruple pairing with more or less rare wines, teas or infusions that mimic their organoleptic profiles, for the purpose of inclusivity, or Capovilla distillates in very small samples, served from the trolley of the usual Remo Pasquini.
The dishes
It is already a course la pagnotta (the loaf), the chef's passion, which at the end of the service performs its evolutions, virtuously rolling out and re-collating the mass like a sheet draped beyond the glass. There are 48 hours of processing and 7 flours, type 1, 0, 00 or malted, rye for color, spelt for fragrance, semolina for the important crust.
The cicchetti follow : the seaweed infusion spherical colored with blue pea leaf on Scardovari oyster emulsion, the steamed and fried bao with blue crab like pork stir fry, the chickpea wafer with peanut miso, lemon compote and wild rosoline cream, and the cumin wafer with foie gras emulsion, seasoned pecorino and egg roe.
The gazpacho pays homage to the iconic Venetian spring vegetable, the pea, with the addition of Tabasco, mint and acid reduction, local or raw red shrimp, freshly seasoned with a reduced bisque, smoked herring roe for savoriness, nasturtium, pea shoots and robiola to fatten it up. Then more veggies: cardoncello, a mushroom favored for meaty, calloused texture, blanched in acidulated water, oven-dried, pan seared and on a charcoal grill for smokiness; with the complicity of an umami-driven "bagna cauda" to anchovy garum, "fishy and long," a lemon compote to clean up and the dust of scraps.
"Le eliche in nero" chart the course between Venice and Campania. To make the squid ink more interesting, Salvatore has constructed "layers of flavor" through intense liver sauce, lighter ragu of the bodies, and egg garum added at the end, centering the zero waste; plus a puree of nepitella (a fresh herb similar to mint) and agretti at the base, which lends balsamic freshness, a sprinkling of amchoor, dried unripe mango, and a whipped hazelnut butter with nepitella, which rounds and structure with the fat.
Ferron's Pila Vecia vialone nano risotto explores rote combinations in its own personal way. There's fava bean puree with their miso, a mantecatura with oxidized water from Ocoo shallots, shallots melted for length, classic sweetbreads marinated in milk one day, blanched, seared and glazed with chicken jus, and chervil florets and oil that open the dish.
"Il pescato del giorno", The catch of the day, comes from large amberjack, grouper or moron, matured for 15 days, portioned, cooked at a low temperature and then lightly passed over teppanyaki so as not to dry out the residual succulence, conveying intense smoky hints. "Perhaps the most international dish, with the sweet and sour red turnip and the heart of the fish processed like roe."
For enthusiasts, there is also the cheese trolley, with aged Monte Veronese, the legendary Fiore Sardo Cugusi, Blu del Moncenisio and fresh Taleggio, accompanied by a bread kneaded with earl grey infusion, pistachios, raisins and pine nuts with a sweet tendency. After the divertissement of the sgroppin, made from a lime and basil inverted meringue that melts in the mouth, releasing scents, comes the monographic and technical pre-dessert dedicated to artichoke. Where the sweetness is limited to the meringue made from the steamed heart puree, while pan-burnt leaves provide a broth oxidized in Ocoo, laced with soy and sake, roasted stems, artichoke oil and scraps a tuile, while Cynar gel enhances the bitterness.
Closing is the dessert of lemon miso salted caramel, broken chocolate brownie, hazelnut butter ice cream, salicornia and hazelnut butter powders, seaweed tuile and green salicornia sauce, which veers on the savory side. For petit fours, homemade black lemon macaron, partially fermented raspberry ganache, wasabi, pea and white chocolate lollipop, red fruit pain aux fruits.
Contacts
Local
Salizzada dei Greci, Castello 3303, Venice, Italy
Phone: 041 241 1128
