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Food — Restaurants

Six hands at the pass: Wistèria reunites with its mentor

Venice, Italy

On November 9, the Michelin starred Venice restaurant stages a singular evening with three chefs cooking side by side, bringing together past and present around a single pass.

By Chris SeelTuesday, 3rd of November 20262 min read
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Three chefs in dark blue caps and aprons confer over a plate at the pass, their hands gesturing in conversation
Wistèria (@wisteriavenezia)

Three white chef’s coats converge at one stove. Nicola Portinari stands beside the two cooks he once shaped: an evening that reads less like a special service than like the closing of a circle, a moment when master and students return to the same position they once occupied together. This is the substance of Wistèria’s November 9 dinner, a six hands collaboration that dissolves the hierarchy of kitchen hierarchy and replaces it with something quieter: a conversation between what was and what has become.

A pale aquamarine-tinted graphic of fish swimming through water, with text reading: From lagoon to hinterland, a six-hands dinner. Eight-course menu. Fish and game.

The menu unfolds across eight courses, each a statement about belonging. Fish and game travel between the lagoon and the Adriatic hinterland, between the water gardens of Venice and the earth of the surrounding territories. This is the borderland Wistèria has always navigated, the kitchen language its founders Andrea Martin and Max Rossetti established within their San Polo restaurant. Now, with Portinari’s presence, that conversation deepens. The evening becomes not a demonstration of skill but a testimony: each dish measuring the distance travelled and the fundamental things that have remained.

Two chefs work intently at the stove, one in white shirt and cap examining a plate while another tends to the cooking line

Wistèria holds its Michelin star, a recognition earned through precise, inventive cooking that honours the Adriatic’s traditions while questioning them. The restaurant sits on the Rio de la Frescada, one of the quieter canals, its modest entrance opening onto the outdoor area where wisteria vines provide shade in their season. This smallness, this intimacy, makes November 9 feel less like a culinary event and more like an act of return. For those seeking to witness the particular alchemy of three hands working as one, the reservation must be made directly with the restaurant.

Three chefs in dark blue caps and aprons confer over a plate at the pass, their hands gesturing in conversation
Three chefs in dark blue caps and aprons confer over a plate at the pass, their hands gesturing in conversation
Three chefs in dark blue caps and aprons confer over a plate at the pass, their hands gesturing in conversation

Imagery courtesy of Wistèria (@wisteriavenezia).

A pale aquamarine-tinted graphic of fish swimming through water, with text reading: From lagoon to hinterland, a six-hands dinner. Eight-course menu. Fish and game.
Two chefs work intently at the stove, one in white shirt and cap examining a plate while another tends to the cooking line
Three chefs in dark blue caps and aprons confer over a plate at the pass, their hands gesturing in conversation
Three chefs in dark blue caps and aprons confer over a plate at the pass, their hands gesturing in conversation
Three chefs in dark blue caps and aprons confer over a plate at the pass, their hands gesturing in conversation

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