Russell Norman is bringing Venice restaurant Alle Testiere to Food Month

As a cult Venice restaurant pops up in the capital and Londoners beat a path to the Biennale, Susannah Butter says Forza Italia!
Russell Norman (right) with Alle Testiere founders Bruno Gavagnin (left) and Luca di Vita

The tiny restaurant Alle Testiere is “like a little jewel box”, says Russell Norman, co-founder of Polpo. “It’s not romantic in the sense of candles and violins but it is beautiful, with space for just 24 people, and produces amazing dishes like soft-shell crab and garlicky razor clams fresh from the lagoon.”

Until now, Alle Testiere’s food has been confined to Venetians and tourists, but now Norman is bringing it over to London so we can try “the culinary heart of another city”.

The Venice-London nexus is strong (despite not working as a portmanteau word — Vendon? Londice?). It started with Londoners decamping to the Italian canals to see Damien Hirst’s shimmering juggernaut of a show there and now the food is coming over in exchange.

In a show of strong European relationships, post-Brexit, Norman is hosting Alle Testiere’s founders, Bruno Gavagnin and Luca di Vita, as they recreate their osteria at Polpetto and The Groucho Club for London Food Month in June. Polpo already has banquette seating inspired by Alle Testiere but, along with the Italian chefs Norman is bringing over, “the little details I love about it — the runners on the tables — we’ll have the same wine glasses, the same table layout and we’ve ordered a big Alle Testiere sign so it will look like it’s come over like a pirate and hijacked the restaurant.”

Norman is already feeling the demand. “There’s a charming fellow I know who works for Credit Suisse and lives in Kensington who booked the whole of Alle Testiere for his birthday, hired a yacht and moored it on the Grand Canal. He’ll be keen on this.”

Russell Norman with the Alle Testierre team in Venice

Like Norman and his business partner Richard Beatty, Gavagnin and Di Vita met working at a restaurant. “Bruno was a chef, Luca the sommelier, and they decided to do their own thing,” says Norman. They opened their restaurant in 1997. The kitchen is too small for them to do all the cooking so Di Vita’s wife “who is instrumental in the business” makes the pasta and desserts in an atelier across the road.

The spaghetti vongole, which will be on the menu at the pop-up, uses dry pasta, “because you need that nutty bite for vongole”, and Norman has sent five different pasta brands to Venice for Gavagnin and Di Vita to choose from.

​Gavagnin doesn’t fly so he will be taking a “convoluted” selection of trains to London involving the Orient Express then the Eurostar. “He said it’s worth it because it’s a dream come true to bring the restaurant here,” says Norman.

Spritz is an important part of the experience and Norman is considering a Cynar gin fizz, “a combination of Italy and England, with Italian Cynar artichoke liqueur, London gin, finished off with a refreshing slice of cucumber”. There will be wine made on an island in the Venetian lagoon, “which is miraculous when you consider how salty the land is there but they’ve pulled it off”.

The menu includes spider crab, pasta, John Dory with herbs, citrus juices and pink peppercorns. Desserts include a traditional Venetian baked cream pudding with pistachio biscuits.

Back in Venice, pride in the city and the seasons leads what’s on the menu. “You go out in the morning, see what’s great and speak to the stall holders, take the ingredients back to the restaurant and cook them. It really is that simple and that philosophy does it every time for me,” says Norman.

Fish takes centre-stage. “The city even looks like a fish on the map. It’s easy to decide what to order. I can’t remember the last time I looked at the menu. There’s a lovely Italian expression, ‘With eating comes appetite’. When you arrive you think you’d better not overdo it but the moment you start, say with garlicky razor clams, you get a second appetite, a third, fourth, and all of a sudden you are ordering everything.”

Norman, who cooked with Gavagnin and Di Vita as research for a book, has buffed up on how the soft-shell crab comes into season twice a year, when the temperature of the lagoon gets warmer because of changing winds from the Dolomite mountains and tides. “They put them live into batter, sometimes with parmesan, drop them into hot oil and serve with a simple salad or a slice of grilled polenta.”

When he first went it was because the restaurant was a smash hit among Venetians. “For a long time the city was in the food doldrums — led by demand for Italian classics like pizza and pasta, which have nothing to do with Venice. Alle Testiere stood away from the tourist traps and revived traditional cuisine.” Fans include Meryl Streep.

It isn’t a party restaurant — that honour falls to a place in the north of Venice called Paradiso Perduto. “It’s run by a mad Roman called Maurizio. They party really hard on Monday nights, shutting only when the police tell them to, and takes Tuesdays and Wednesdays off to recover.”

Norman is living part-time in Venice, writing a book about a year cooking there. “To start with the Italian grandmas in the market were completely bemused,” he says. “They couldn’t understand why this middle-aged, middle-class Englishman was following them everywhere as they dragged their trollies shopping.”

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On previous trips, before he had a base in the city, Norman used to fill up his hand luggage with Treviso tartivo, a raddichio from the mainland with “beautiful fronds” because he was so desperate to cook it, so now “it’s a treat to cook with fresh produce in the acity that’s given me my career”.

When he’s in London he’s busy expanding Polpo and Spuntino. “Italian food is having a good moment in London,” he says. “It’s regional now — from Calabrian food at Francesco Mazzei’s new place Radici to pasta specialists at Padella.”

If you want to try Gavagnin and Di Vita’s cooking at home, their cookbook will be given out to everyone at the event. “Polpo was inspired by Alle Testiere,” says Norman. “So we’ve come full circle with lovely synergy.”

The pop-up will be at at Polpetto, Berwick Street, W1, on June 12-13, and at The Groucho Club, Dean Street, W1, on June 14-15. Book here or by emailing naomi@thegroucho club.com.

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