Venice between Kitchen and Atelier

I met Zaira Zarotti when I was the Art Director of D la Repubblica - she was discovered through Instagram by one of my colleagues. Seeing how beautiful her work was, I called her up to do features for the food section of the magazine. After I left D and returned to Venice full-time, I asked her if she would be interested in doing a cookbook. She enthusiastically replied that she had already been working on an idea that was a reflection of her Venetian lifestyle in a household of artists and passionate cooks, one that demonstrated the relationship between the kitchen and the artist atelier – research involving invaluable recipes passed down through generations – ingredients, colors, preparation, sensations. Her evocative and poetic images in chiaroscuro remind one of Dutch paintings but with a contemporary focus. I convinced the publisher at Elzeviro to take on this project with me. The book was published in October 2024.