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Chefs, cookery writers and restaurant owners Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi talk to the head of Oxford Gastronomica Donald Sloan about their new book, Venice: Recipes Lost and Found – and offer some tastings. During their research in Venice, the Caldesis uncovered a 14th-century book, Libro per Cuoco (Book for Cook), by an anonymous Venetian and were fascinated to discover a restaurant that was basing its food on the recipes. The book was written at a time when Venice dominated trade in the Mediterranean, in particular the spice trade.

Wealthy Venetians were obsessed by spices such as pepper, cinnamon, cassia bark, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, saffron, coriander seed, sumac and aniseed. While the medieval food of Venice reflected this, it is largely forgotten in today’s cuisine. The Caldesis’ recipes reflect both today’s Venetian cuisine and attempt to recapture some of what has been lost.

The Caldesis own London’s Caffé Caldesi, Caldesi in Campagna in Bray and the Marylebone La Cucina Caldesi cooking school. They are also authors of the successful The Amalfi Coast. The Caldesis will prepare a menu based on their book for a festival dinner the same evening.

Sloan is head of the Oxford School of Hospitality Management at Oxford Brookes University and chair of Oxford Gastronomica, a specialist centre for the study of food, drink and culture, that works to enhance our relationship with food and drink, and to celebrate their place in our lives.