A new chef at Venice’s most elegant hotel is bringing experimental cooking to a city known for its traditions
The best hotel in Venice isn’t really in Venice. Well, not the Venice we know, anyway. The waterbound city, miraculous and spellbinding, can sometimes prove a little overwhelming. Which is perhaps why Giuseppe Cipriani — founder of Venice institution Harry’s Bar and inventor of the Bellini cocktail — decided to open his eponymous hotel across the lagoon from Piazza San Marco, on the quiet, breezy island of Giudecca. Five minutes by vaporetto to what feels like another planet entirely.
The hotel, now officially known as the Belmond Cipriani, turns 65 this year and is rightly regarded as one of the world’s very best places to rest your head. Now, thanks to the arrival of one of Italy’s most exciting young chefs, it’s one of the best places to eat, too.
Born in Padua, Riccardo Canella has spent much of his career away from Italy, working in the world’s most illustrious establishments, most notably the test kitchen at Noma, René Redzepi’s iconoclastic restaurant in Copenhagen, where he was sous chef for seven years. “Travelling and experiencing different cultures definitely gives you a different perspective,” Canella says. “I’ve been able to grow up and learn as a cook and, most importantly, as a person.”
Now he is home, and cooking like it. The food at Ristorante Oro — the flagship at the Cipriani — is a departure
