trading empire. silks, spices, ideas and money, lots of it. the venetians live between earth and water. it s shaped their character, salty, wise and ingenuous. i have never seen anyone do that before. i m stanley tucci. i m italian on both sides and i m traveling across italy to discover how the food in each of this country s 20 regions is as unique as the people and their past. may i? thank you. how are you? good. good. surrounded by wetlands, these people are hunters. you re a great shot. and gatherers. it is perfectly balanced. wow. wow! the sea brought the outside world to the venetians and fed their appetites. mmm, so many different cultures right in a bowl. venice is the capital of the venito region. it is flat, fertile and damp. sheltered in the west by the dolomites and in the east warmed by the adriatic sea. 117 islands sit in this salty bay, the lagoon. venice is the largest. no food is grown here. it all comes in from the outside. i want to
hello. hi. hi. nice to meet you. nice to meet you, too. i know you are a very good cook, so not like you. no, i mean i haven t tasted your food yet, so, you know, we ll see. we ll just see what happens. i know you have a michelin star, don t you? yeah, i do. that s pretty good. but michelin star is not my aim, it is not my joy. right, right. i mean i like clients, i like nature. yeah. i like cooking. so what is cooking? it is spaghetti, obviously, but and what do you call this dish? we call it spago oro. golden spaghetti. this is not traditional. with this dish i want to express the flavor of lagoon. so this is the garden. loved in the ancient world, garum is liquid fermented fish with a delicate umami taste. you can really smell that, the
garum. i give the sour flavor with the grape. this is unripe grapes. in french they call it . oh, i ve heard of that, yes. so try to open it. it is boiling. is it boiling? is it fermenting? yes, it is fermenting. she uses leftover unripe grapes for her dish. they re salt and acidic like a light vinegar. what did you put in there? asparagus and parsley. this is the sea asparagus, the italian version of sand fire. it is a really great salty. no, no, salty. it is very salty, but it is incredibly delicious. actual gold leaf as used by