 | By: Arrigo Cipriani Binding: Hardcover Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group ISBN: 0553070304 ISBN-13: 9780553070309 Released: 05 Dec 1998 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Tucked away on a corner not far from St Mark's Square, it is quite smalll with low ceilings but with an incredible view of the Grand Canal from its first floor. The decor is very relaxing with smalll comfortable chairs & tables in pleasant shades of apricot & cream. Upon opening the doors, you immediately drink in the atmosphere that is intimate, worldly, historicallly rich & alive.
I remember the first time I visited Harry's bar twenty-five years ago. I went to this legendary bar, made famous by Ernest Hemingway, after having promised myself that I would only have a drink. I knew the prices would be outrageous for someone on a student budget since Harry's Bar had enjoyed an international reputation since 1931. But the moment that last sip of wine was out of my glass, I had to ask for a table. I do not remember what I had for lunch that day at Harry's Bar. I do remember though, how impressed I was by the quality of the house wine, the simple presentation of the food that tasted wonderful & the professional & friendly service with which the Harry's Bar staff made sure that this was going to be a memorable experience for me. So, Harry's Bar became part of my growing up & thus gained a significant importance in my life.
Ernest Hemingway used to have his own table in one corner of Harry's Bar. At the end of World War II, Hemingway dedicated to the bar a page of his famous novel "Across the River & into the Trees." The list of famous people who frequented Harry's Bar is long & impressive. Arturo Toscanini, Guglielmo Marconi, Charlie Chaplin, Truman Capote, Orson Welles, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Princess Aspasia of Greece, Aristotle Onassis, Barbara Hutton, Peggy Guggenheim & Woody Allen, just to mention a few.
Harry's Bar opened in 1931 when Giuseppe Cipriani, an enterprising bartender at the Hotel Europa in Venice, was rewarded for his earlier generosity to a rich, young American from Boston named Harry Pickering. Pickering had been a customer at the Hotel Europa for some time, then suddenly stopped frequenting the hotel bar. One day, the elder Cipriani asked Pickering why he no longer patronized the bar. Pickering was broke, he explained to the bartender -- his family cut him off when it was discovered he had not curtailed his recklessness & fondness for drinking. So, Cipriani loaned his patron $5,000 U.S. so that Mr. Pickering could pay his hotel & bar bill as well as his cost of transportation home & ... have one last martini. Two years later, Pickering walked back into the Hotel Europa, ordered a drink at the bar, thanked Cipriani for the loan & handed him enough money to repay the loan & enable Cipriani to open his own bar.
In 1991, Giuseppe's son, Arrigo Cipriani, assembled a book of recipes: "The Harry's Bar Cookbook" (Bantam Books). The book contains more than 200 original recipes, more than 125 lavish full color photographs, wonderful anecdotes & insight into the nuances of classic Italian cuisine & their philosophy of entertaining.
During the 1930s & 1940s, founder Giuseppe Cipriani created many of the dishes still served today. Giuseppe invented the Bellini & the Montgomery cocktails. The Bellini, contains white peach pulp, juice & Prosecco (an Italian sparkling wine). Giuseppe is said to have invented it in 1948, & named the drink for the Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini whose works were exhibited in Venice that year. The Montgomery, as Hemingway callled it, is a very dry martini with a proportion of gin to vermouth of fifteen to one - the same proportion that the famed British General Bernard Montgomery was said to have endured when he lead his soldiers to fight against the enemy during World War II.
Other classics include: hot sandwiches; shrimp sandwiches (favorites of Orson Welles & Truman Capote); egg pasta with ham au gratin; risotto; & Carpaccio which is the most popular dish served at Harry's Bar. Consisting of paper-thin sheets of raw filet mignon, seasoned with a light white sauce, the Carpaccio, according to the bar's legend, was inspired by one of Cipriani's regular customers, the Countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo, whose doctor prohibited her from eating cooked meat. The dish was named after the celebrated Renaissance Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio, famous for his use of bright red-and-white colors.
The "Harry's Bar Cookbook" is a beautiful book to own & a great inspiration for the creation of meals tantalizing to the palate. The recipes are innovative, well written & they work! This cookbook is the second best thing to having lunch at Harry's Bar, but with the stories in the book & your dreamy imagination, it's almost like being there!
The beauty of the recipes lies in their simplicity, their adaptability to a range of dining styles from elegant to informal & their memorable flavor. I hope you enjoy this cookbook as much as we do in our home.
Below are some of the current bestsellers - click them for a price comparison and find the cheapest place to buy!
