The cuisine of the Riviera del Brenta

In the late eighteenth century, with the fall by Napoleon of the Venetian Republic and the privileges of the Venetian patriciate, parties and banquets in the Villa and the myth of the dolce vita of the Riviera del Brenta disappeared. In the 1950s, with the first tourist movements, an interest in rediscovering the Riviera began. Mindful of the great banquets in Villa, local restaurateurs recovered and repurposed much of the handed-down skill of preparing seafood specialties that had been lost in the declining times. The taverns little by little became trattorias and restaurants, and in May 1960 the regular sailing service of the historic Burchiello was resumed, bringing worldwide fame and notoriety. In the meantime, the economic categories of tourism, led by a group of enlightened entrepreneurs including Adelino Carraro, Remigio dal Corso and Sergio Tuzzato Nalin, began to invest in major awards, major gastronomic review events and high-ranking testimonials that brought Riviera cuisine into the national limelight, re-proposing in taste the 18th-century myth of the “Delights of the Brenta”.

For Adelino Carraro, a historic restaurateur and hotelier, gastronomy on the Riviera del Brenta is based on fish and shellfish cuisine, thanks to its history connected to the Serenissima Republic of Venice and the typical fish of the lagoon and the Adriatic.

Today the restaurant offerings of the Brenta Riviera consist of more than 300 establishments including restaurants, trattorias and agritourisms. However, for those who do not like fish, meat dishes abound: boiled, roasted and grilled meats and all the classics of inland tradition, which coexist with fish in a gastronomic offering suited to every palate. The richness of this area,” says Town Center Manager Pierpaolo Dall’Agnola, ”is well represented by a cuisine based not only on great products and historical recipes, but first and foremost on a culture of hospitality rooted among entrepreneurs that makes the customer its most important asset.”

Instead, a very special choice of fish is made by longtime family-owned chef Linda Cacco of the Osteria del Baccalà in Strà. Within the riparian restaurant scene, the Osteria stands out for its specialization in baccalà, the historic dish of Venetian cuisine made from dried cod (stoccafisso), a product first imported in 1432 by Venetian navigator Pietro Querini upon his return from one of his daring voyages to Norway’s Lofoten Islands. Linda offers several innovative pairings of stockfish with seasonal fruits and vegetables, which can best be enjoyed in the so-called “vertical” of cod, ranging from the traditional baccalà mantecato, to fried cod, from baccalà alla vicentina to baked cod with potatoes and Taggiasche olives. The philosophy of the osteria is to convey the passion and love for an excellence of Venetian cuisine, reinterpreted creatively to give guests a truly unique experience of food and knowledge.