The Harry's Bar Cookbook ANNOTATION
More than 200 recipes--from the world-famous Bellini cocktail to carpaccio to Risotto Primavera--make these first-time-ever-revealed secrets of the legendary restaurant and celebrity watering hole a culinary treasure. Serial rights to European Travel & Life. 125 color photographs.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
There is only one Harry's Bar. Located in Venice's Calle Vallaresso, near the Piazza San Marco, this legendary restaurant has been, for five decades, the meeting place for artists, writers, royalty, maestros, divas, celebrities, the very rich, and lots of ordinary - but very wise - Americans and Europeans. Everyone from the Windsors and the Onassises and the Burtons to Cole Porter, Ernest Hemmingway, and Joan Crawford has come here for great food, fine drinks, and the imcomparable ambience. Now, to the delight of his legions of customers, Arrigo Cipriani shares his favorite stories about Harry's Bar and its secrets - and reveals for the first time his treasured recipes for the restaurant's most popular dishes.
Harry's Bar, above all, is a bar. Its distinctive mixed drinks were created by its founder, Arrigo's father, Giuseppe Cipriani, and they remain the social center of the establishment. Therefore you'll find careful instructions for making the world-famous Bellini - the frosty, forthy combination of rose-colored peach elixir and Prosecco (the Italian champagne) - and the secret of making the Montgomery, named by Hemingway himself, which is nothing less than the driest, most delicious martini in the world.
Harry's Bar is also famous for its sandwiches - mouth-watering, overstuffed, unique concoctions: pale yellow egg sandwiches spiked with anchovies; chunks of freshly poached chicken or shrimp bound with creamy, newly made mayonnaise. The Harry's Bar club sandwich is a legend in itself, knife-and-fork food that's simply superb.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
The Venetians are reputed to be the most gracious hosts in all of Italy, and Cipriani, second-generation owner of the eponymous establishment, provides one of the most inviting Italian cookbooks of recent memory. Here, elegance consists of simplicity. Recipes developed in the six decades of the history of Harry's Bar are clearly and carefully adapted for the American home cook, including the famous Bellini (white peach nectar mixed with Prosecco; even the restaurant now uses a frozen French peach puree). Serve the celebrated fegato alla veneziana (the secret: slice the liver one-fifth-inch thick) with polenta. Artful digressions throughout the volume discuss classic Italian ingredients (use extra-virgin olive oil judiciously; let truffles sit for a few minutes at room temperature so that any worms can crawl out). Cipriani is honest about what might prevent exact reproductions of his bar's food (e.g., professional-strength vs. domestic appliances, quality of local produce) but imparts some of the restaurant's aura via generously related and amusing anecdotes, one featuring Ernest Hemingway, a stingy Venetian countess and a four-pound tin of caviar. Photos and introduction not seen by PW. (Oct.)
Library Journal
Far from the ``Recipes of the Rich and Famous'' one might expect, this is in fact an engaging and unaffected memoir/cookbook from the owner of the family restaurant that is a Venetian institution. Cipriani has managed Harry's Bar since 1957, becoming extremely knowledgeable about food, drink, and human nature in the process. His expertise and love of good food is evident in the recipe headnotes and the sidebars on ingredients, and his professed dislike of pretentious food is borne out by the delicious but simple dishes served at his restaurant. Christopher Baker's beautiful color photographs complement the text. For travel as well as cookery collections.
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