VENICE – VENETO - ITALY
Chiara
Pavan*
In Mazzorbo, a small island near Venice, Chiara Pavan serves up a cuisine steeped in the culinary heritage of the Veneto region. Beyond the kitchen, she passionately champions the preservation of the Venetian lagoon and advocates for hyper-local products. With 1 Michelin Star and 1 Green Star, she is celebrated as an ethical chef leading the charge towards sustainable gastronomy.
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Two exclusive escapes created in collaboration with Chef Chiara Pavan
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Tasting dinner in her Michelin-starred restaurant
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Exclusive experience with the Chef and Dorona di Venezia wine tasting
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Meet the Venetian artisans who perpetuate the age-old traditions
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Venetian cooking class
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Taste the best wine and cheeses of the Prosecco region
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Spend the night on the islands of Burano or Mazzorbo for an authentic experience
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Luxury or Charm Hotels
PRIVATE ESCAPES
From €3,030 per person*
based on double occupancy
Departure from Venice
From €6,470 per person*
based on double occupancy
Departure from Venice
*Prices may vary when booking depending on availability
A philosopher
in the kitchen
Chiara Pavan is a peculiar element in the world of haute cuisine. Firstly, because she is a female Chef and has settled in Venice, but also because she is a philosophy and sociology scholar who is proud to claim her cooking is political and radical. She expresses, in her food, her strong opinions about the preservation of the Venice laguna.
Chiara Pavan tiptoed her way into the world of gastronomy. She was a studying Philosophy in Pisa when she became a cook as her student job and was enthralled by this line of work. After a dense training, Chiara arrived at the Undecesimo Vineria restaurant where she crossed paths with Chef Francesco Brutto, who soon became her cooking – and life – companion.
The Venissa journey began in 2016, reinforcing her solid views on how gastronomy needs to evolve. “I do not use vacuum-sealed lids, nothing with plastic film, no plastic, never. I’m always shocked at the quantity of plastic being used in the world of gastronomy.”
Then, she fell in love with the Venice laguna. According to her, it is the area of the world most directly exposed to climate change. Chiara Pavan and Francesco Brutto aim to shake up traditional Venetian cooking with their seafood dishes (moeche crab or even jellyfish) and their dozens of varieties of vegetables and herbs straight from their own patch or produced by local producers and fishermen.
The unexpected happened in 2018 when Chiara Pavan received the award for Best Italian Chef and a Michelin star for her bold, sustainable culinary creations, highlighting local fish, veggies and herbs.
Chiara Pavan aims for haute cuisine to become more eco-friendly and more inclusive of female Chefs: “Us, women, have to find our own space, in one imagined already by male Chefs… a space built for and by men only.”
Meeting Chiara
A quiet island, with fishermen houses in shades of yellow, red, turquoise and green. A large, 2 acres long, fence, grapevines and over sixty different varieties of vegetables.
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There, lunch or dinner, under the shade of an age-old steeple. Far from the bustle of civilization, thirty minutes away from the hordes of tourists trampling on, marring La Serenissima.
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Visiting Mazzorbo island, and meeting Chef Chiara Pavan, you can feel down to your bones the silence, peace and salty air of the Venice laguna. You also meet her kitchen brigade, truly committed to protecting the fragile, ill-treated ecosystem of the region.
That morning, Chiara strolls in her vegetable garden, a smile on her face. Picking up fresh herbs, samphire and other laguna algae, to enhance the flavours of her dishes.
Later, it’s a carousel of plates in Venissa, the restaurant where the Michelin starred Chef’s commitment truly shines. Her cooking style is aesthetic, vigorous, truly sublime and unique in its qualities. It leaves you speechless!
In the evening, as the city of Burano sleeps, you wander its quiet streets and weep, moved by the fragility of planet Earth. And of Venice, that we wish to be eternal.
Juliana Angotti, founder of Hiddenist