The Documentation Center for 20th Century Cuisine
The Documentation Center for 20th Century Cuisine was founded in 2014 through collaboration with the publishing house “l’Orto della Cultura” and Chef Germano Pontoni. This initiative stemmed from their shared desire to donate their extensive collection of books and photographic documents related to the culinary art of the 1970s in Italy, especially in our region. This culinary heritage is influenced by Auguste Escoffier’s Nouvelle Cuisine but adapted to Italian tradition by Maestro Gualtiero Marchesi. On the ground floor, you’ll find the cuisine of the land, and on the small mezzanine with a porthole, the cuisine of the sea.
The Cuisine of the Land
Dedicated to Chef Giorgio Busdon, in the cuisine of the land section, it gathers ancient texts, documents, and tools of the trade used by the great chefs of our region in the 1970s, who were heirs to the Nouvelle Cuisine adapted to Italian culinary tradition. The display cases exhibit photographic documents of the great masters in their own restaurants with illustrious figures, or among colleagues and friends during breaks. They contain workbooks, notes, and various collections of recipes for every occasion and celebration, along with the kitchen tools of the 1970s. Each display case is also accompanied by all the honors earned during each of their careers.
This culinary tradition was championed in the region by masters like Busdon, Dover, Cosetti, Arturo Rimini, and, today, Maestros Germano Pontoni and Sergio Mian, all while respecting the principles of the new cuisine that came from beyond the Alps and, most importantly, the quality of the raw materials and seasonal produce emphasized by the great Gualtiero Marchesi.
La Cucina di mare
The sea cuisine section, through splendid photographs of luxurious ship interiors and lavish buffets, the uniforms of the crew, famous figures, and scale models, aims to shed light on the testimonies of Onboard Cuisine within the context of the great Italian naval tradition. This tradition dates back to the shipyards of the first half of the 20th century and extends up to the 1970s, featuring the Italia di Navigazione and Lloyd Triestino.
The exhibition spaces gather photographs, notes, work tools, ship logs, documents from the great chefs of historic ships and their Captains, and notable personalities. The rich tradition of splendid Italian ships, including Raffaello, Michelangelo, Cristoforo Colombo, Leonardo, Giulio Cesare, Augustus, Verdi, Rossini, and Donizetti, with their elegant furnishings, onboard life and culture, Italian haute cuisine traditions, and kitchen work.
In the history of the great White Ships that sailed the seas worldwide, a chapter was never written about the chefs of passenger ships who, with their professionalism, introduced and promoted Italian cuisine. This place is dedicated to them. Chef Germano Pontoni presents the Galley Diary at the entrance of his life on board with Lloyd Triestino. The Culinary Ambassador’s jacket from Princess Cruise, a donation from Commander Alfredo Marzi, is displayed with two of the many honors he received during his illustrious career: the Chaine de Rotisseurs Collar 1248 and the Chef of the Year Collar received from the National Executive Chef Association USA in 1998. Additionally, there is a beautiful wooden model of an ancient sailing ship built to scale during the work breaks of General Manager Marzi, the Cutty Sark (an English clipper) from 1869, Dumbarton, Scotland.
The Images
