When it comes to Italian food, it’s best you go to the source. Based in Venice, Enrica Rocca understands the ins and outs of Italian cuisine, and more specifically—Venetian cuisine. So much so, she opened two cookery schools dedicated to it—one in Venice and another in London.
According to Rocca, a good meal begins and ends with the ingredients you use. “It is all about the quality of the ingredients, which is why it is so important to eat local,” she explained in an interview with Suitcase Magazine. “Good ingredients are expensive in today’s world, so eating well represents a big sacrifice, but it’s well worth it for our health and happiness.”
With an emphasis on quality ingredients, Rocca acknowledges the difficulty of replicating a local cuisine elsewhere in the world. “I also know how difficult it is to replicate any cuisine outside of its original country,” she remarks. “A cuisine is built around the local ingredients, so exporting a culinary culture is really difficult.”
Her school in Venice—housed in the family palazzo—offers the chance to understand the city’s cuisine from the inside out—spending the day as a true Venetian and discovering the freshest local seafood at Rialto Market.
According to Rocca, dishes are usually comprised of just two or three ingredients, chosen well, cooked simply, and brought to the table with gusto.
If there’s one thing better than an Italian dish, it’s eating an Italian dish in Italy. When traveling is again permitted (and safe), we can’t wait to sign up to Rocca’s cooking courses.
