Rick Stein: From Venice to Istanbul

Episode 1

Venice

59 mins

Chef Rick Stein starts his culinary journey of the northeast Mediterranean coast cuisines in the Adriatic dogal city Venice, a monumental and tourist-adored pearl. It rose to riches and fame by trade with the Byzantine empire and trough it and the Silk Road the exotic East. This is well reflected in its cuisine, not in the least by the generous of spices, themselves historically a major commodity. Yet it's also typically Italian in relative simplicity, focusing on a few key ingredients, fitting a port often seafood. Yet one of the traditional dishes Rick tastes in Benetian restaurants and varies on in his Greek Island Simi series base stars liver and onions, the working man's favorite.