LA HOSTARIA COLLECTION

ALSO CALLED "CUCINA POVERA"

"Roses and Spices: The Fragrant World of Venice" explores and shares the historical recipes for food, natural remedies and perfumery of the Republic of Venice, distilled from forgotten books at the Venetian State Archive and other public and private libraries. 

Cucina povera literally translates as  Poor cuisine, as it was eaten for centuries in the Lagoon of Venice. It's based on ingredients sourced in the Lagoon and estuary, like fish, herbs and fruit growing in the Lagoon and estuary. 

But times are changing - today's alta cucina (luxury cuisine in Venice) is based exactly on these ingredients!

And as such, these were the ingredients grandmother has been using in her kitchen since she first opened her restaurant in April 1945, just after WW2.

For the dishes served in her restaurant, grandmother relied on family recipes going back a few hundred years. They had to be simple as food was often scarce in the frugal times following the war.

Our HOSTARIA COLLECTION CALLED LIGHT BLUE includes grandmother's recipes: Light blue because the collection refers to the bluish color shades of its ingredients, from sage to thyme, wisteria (!) to blueberries, grapes, wine and olives. 

Centuries-old, secret gardens, tucked away behind towering red brick walls. Did you know that more than half of Venice consists of green spaces? Our city counted more than 500 botanical gardens in the year 1500. Gardens in which Venetians experimented with exotic herbs, fruit, and spices, developing a fusion cuisine which one would never expect in a Lagoon in the Mediterranean Sea.

Our online classes, set in La Venessiana's own spice atelier in the heart of Venice, show you the three stages of Venetian cuisine:

Benefit from the wisdom Venice accumulated during more than 1600 years.

FUSION CUISINE CONSISTS OF THREE VITAL COMPONENTS

  • Roman Origins

    Since Roman times, Lagoon food consisted of healthy combinations of plant-based ingredients and healing herbs, varying according to the seasons. In our online cooking classes, you learn to understand and harness the power of herbs, and how to easily integrate them into your own cooking and baking.

  • Greek Flavors

    Learn how to use spices work for health, wellbeing, and beauty, and to create delicious seasonal foods and drinks. To work best, spices need to be used in correct amounts and combinations, varying according to the seaons. Simple recipes from the past will boost your well-being, short and long term.

  • Color Wheel

    Combining plant elixirs, essential oils, freshly picked and dried herbs, blossoms, and colorful spices is the secret of Venetian culinary culture, famous in Europe for more than 1,200 years. Benefit from the Venetian Flavor and Color Framework and its easy recipes for delicious food, natural remedies and beauty products.

Discover the gourmet experiences

Spice flavors and botanical cuisine

  • €28,00

    €28,00Spring Awakening in the Lagoon: Green Cuisine and Healing Herbs

    Our first online class, filled with delicious recipes for a spring menu from the Lagoon and cakes made from spring blossom syrups. Discover the secrets of foraging herbs in the Lagoon, see our wild garden and spring pantry, and get started with the basics of Venetian cuisine!
    Buy Now

  • €28,00

    €28,00Summer in Venice: Hidden gardens and Lagoon flavors

    Discover the northern Lagoon virtually, learn to make cooling syrups and beauty elisirs from blossoms. Create herbal summer drinks and enjoy a summer blossom menu.
    Buy Now

From our Course Participants and Readers

“Have you seen Iris’ site? She is probably the foremost expert on historic Venetian recipes, at least among those who write about it, with us today. I am always so grateful for her posts. Even if I’m scared half to death of cooking with pine syrup ..”

Marjorie Sterne, OG Venice Travel Guide and Agency

“I want to live in your Venice! You describe the city in such rich and loving detail.”

Kathleen González, Author: Seductive Venice Blog, First Spritz is Free

Meet your instructors

Lina Teresa

Associazione Cavalieri di San Marco, founder of three restaurants in Venice. Co-Founder of La Venessiana

Lina is a member of the Cavalieri di San Marco Association, founded by former noble families of the Serenissima Republic of Venice in 1571, when Venice fought the all-decisive battle of Lepanto. She is 98 years old, and opened three restaurants and a hotel near Piazza San Marco. Lina is deeply interested in Venetian cuisine and garden heritage. Since 1968, she has taken care of the library and terraced gardens of San Zaccaria monastery in Venice. Lina's kitchen is the home of our spice atelier! For our online experiences, Lina provides the most wonderful inspiration, memories of the past, wisdom for the future, and very special stories about Venice.

Iris Loredana

Sustainability expert, Venetian culinary historian, spices and aromatherapy. Co-Founder of La Venessiana Magazine.

Iris was educated in Venice and Vienna: She speaks seven languages, amongst them Greek, Latin and Venessian, the former languages of Venice. Iris wrote her thesis on the ecology and urbanization of the Lagoon of Venice, and business in times of unprecedented change with a focus on Europe and the Veneto. Together with Lina, she started La Venessiana - The fragrant world of Venice in 2011. In her spare time, Iris loves developing recipes, taking photos, and researching ancient books on spices and on Venice.

How can you benefit from historical Venetian recipes?

Please note: These are culinary, health and beauty food classes aimed at improving wellbeing and health in a natural way. Recipes from these online courses cannot, and should not, replace any prescriptive medication you may have to take. Please consult your doctor when in doubt. Still, changing your style of cooking to using exclusively natural ingredients as we show in the cooking classes, may help you mitigate, or even get rid of, symptoms brought about by chronic illnesses, such as pain or allergies.

  • Enjoy simple and natural dishes enriched with herbs and spices in the right amount and right combinations to mitigate chronic health issues.

  • Bake delicious cakes and cookies from natural ingredients that are actually healthy!

  • Get to know the six basic flavors and colors of which nourishing food consists.

  • Learn Venetian cooking secrets and improve skin and wellbeing, and seaonal issues like allergies.

  • Historical recipes are almost entirely gluten-free. So for all of you who are gluten-sensitive, cooking with herbs, blossoms and spices can add so much quality in life.

Choose your favorites!

where would you like to start?