A new book called Ciao, Carpaccio!: An Infatuation, by veteran travel writer Jan Morris, celebrates the Venetian artist Carpaccio, who often used swaths of bright red in his paintings. His color choice is said to be the inspiration for beef or tuna carpaccio, slices of which are similarly deep red in the middle. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Carpaccio”
I’ve been reading a cool book lately called Ciao Carpaccio and Infatuation.
It’s by the veteran travel writer Jan Morris.
And it’s about the Venetian painter Carpaccio, who painted in the late 1400s and early 1500s.
It’s got a lot of beautiful reproductions of his paintings, and many of them have a whole lot of red in the paintings.
It’s really distinctive.
And I was reminded reading that that that’s why we have tuna carpaccio or veal carpaccio.
Because it looks like his paintings?
Yeah, because it’s got the red in the middle because it’s almost raw.
What a strange connection that is.
Yeah, well, apparently the owner of Harry’s Bar there, the famous Harry’s Bar in Venice that Hemingway was a fan of, named his Carpaccio dishes after this painter.
Big fan of painting.
Yes.
And food.
Yes.
Well, and the tourists who came to see it, that’s also where the Bellini was invented, the little champagne with peach.
I see.
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