Traditional lagoon cuisine as told by Chiara Pavan and Francesco Brutto on the island of Mazzorbo.
The restaurant
I went to Venissa - Osteria Contemporanea at the end of November 2024, the last weekend to visit the Biennale Arte. I organized my weekend starting from the usual appointment at the Arsenale, which every year hosts most of the pavilions of the international exposition, and then I clearly dedicated myself to the gastronomic stops for which, in Venice, one is spoiled for choice among historical bacari, new little gems, natural wines and gourmet restaurants.
I interviewed cheffe Chiara Pavan for the first time in March 2024, and although I was intrigued by her work even before that meeting, I took leave of our chat taking home a strong and solid regard for her, as a cheffe and as a woman. Returning to my weekend in Venice, I communicate my desire to go to Venissa to my traveling companions, among whom was Diego Rossi, chef of Trippa in Milan, who says “Let's go to the Osteria, we'll have a good time” (I quote). Every time Chef Rossi came to my table with a dish to try, I never said “no,” and even in the face of his proposal, I continued in the same vein. He was right, we did have fun, and today I thank him.
Venissa - Osteria Contemporanea , like its big brother Venissa, is comfortably nestled on the island of Mazzorbo, connected by the Ponte Longo (long bridge, to translate from the dialect of the locals) to the charming and super-photographed island of Burano (I see no mistake!). It is reached by a twenty-minute boat ride from Venice, and as soon as you put your feet back on land, you find yourself in a world apart. Behind you you have left the much-talked-about Venetian tourist chaos behind and in front of you is a slow, quiet beauty. Nestled between the vineyards and the lagoon, Venissa - Osteria Contemporanea manages to be both refined and informal at the same time, a typical characteristic that only innate elegance can communicate.
Welcoming us were Chiara Pavan and Francesco Brutto, companions in work and life, very different in approach. One more smiling and curious, the other a bit more reserved and quiet. Together they narrate, through food and wine (Brutto is a skilled connoisseur of natural wines) the environmental cuisine and, in the case of the Osteria, traditional lagoon dishes. Before moving on to the actual gastronomic experience, I feel the need to dwell for a few lines on environmental cuisine, a concept that has made Cheffe Pavan famous. In a world that has tarred and feathered beautiful terms and concepts such as, for example, resilience and sustainability, cheffe Pavan describes his environmental cuisine as one that must respect resources (apologies for the pun).
There is not only an attention to the seasonality of vegetables, an intelligent use of the availability of an area and exemplary diligence in the use of raw material, there is more. You may remember Pavan at the microphones of major national news outlets recounting her approach to the blue crab that rocked the fishing industry in the summer of 2023. What did she do? She took the blue crab, an alien and invasive species, and put it on her menu so it would be an example to restaurateurs and home cooks. Is there a problem? You try to find a solution, without sitting idly by and judging with much indignation and little pragmatism.
No meat has been served at Venissa for several years, and welcome are the species that have ended up here due to human inattention to a problem that is becoming more tangible day by day. One example, in addition to the aforementioned blue crab, is that of the "rapana venosa", a controversial mollusk that Pavan also brought to one of his MasterChef hosts to tell his cooking philosophy and raise awareness of the issue among the general public.
The cuisine
Okay, but how do we eat at Venissa - Osteria Contemporanea? It is hard to answer this question, because saying “well” seems trivial and reductive, but if the formula was “Would you recommend this place to your best friends?”, the answer is yes, a huge and loud yes. Osteria del Venissa is proof that ingredient trumps ego, that quality raw material is already a great dish in its essence. Forget meat and open up to seafood cuisine. Cooked, raw, fried and you name it.
I started with the crudi, small slices of sea bass flesh, sea bream, ventresca amberjack, volpina (or mullet). The dishes arrive all at once, shared, and are laid on a bare wooden table, few frills and lots of substance. There is no shortage of baccalà mantecato, which tells of Venetian cicchetti as per tradition, canocchie (or cicale di mare), lagoon shrimp cooked over charcoal and seasoned very simply. The white polenta with squid ink and cuttlefish tripe are a true hymn to seafood cuisine, a vintage cuisine that is making a comeback and delighting palates now tired of big lists and little taste. Touching are the fried schie, tiny gray shrimps typical of Venetian cuisine.
They are not side dishes, but dishes in their own right, the vegetables: radicchio salad, carrots with goat cheese, hummus, cauliflower gratin. All are enhanced by a skillful use of herbs that all come from the estate. I personally asked the cheffe for a taste of her famous blue crab spaghetti and did not regret it at all. This is a dish that has put some of my diners off; the hint of vineyard garlic is particularly pungent, I recognize. But we are in an osteria, which has always been the place for honest and heartfelt flavors.
Before writing this piece, as usual, I did some research to see what other colleagues or enthusiasts thought about it, and to my great amazement I found that there is a lot about Venissa restaurant and very little about the Osteria. This I can't explain because Venissa - Osteria Contemporanea is one of those places that makes you want to come back and without too much of a wait. I recommend, if you go there for lunch, to make it last long enough so that you can see the sunset, which, on a lucky clear day, will set Venice ablaze with additional and brazen beauty.
Contact and info
Venissa - Osteria Contemporanea
Fondamenta S. Caterina 3 - 30142 Mazzorbo (VE)
Lunch hours | 12.00 - 14.00
Dinner hours | 19.00 - 21.00
Closed days | Thursdays in February and March, and from November to January; always open from April to October.
Bar is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Reservations: +39 041 52 72 281
Email: info@venissa.it
