Credits Brambilla-Serrani
Lughetto Campagna Lupia (Venice) via Marghera, 24 +39.041.5185009
Lionello Cera is the heart and mind of the renowned totally seafood based establishment bearing the family name. Together with his siblings Daniele and Lorena and his wife Simonetta he transformed what was once a simple trattoria in the Venetian countryside into a place of research and passion on which today 2 Michelin stars shine.
In 1966, on the very year when Lionello was born, his father Rino (a fisherman) and mother Silvana (a cook) opened the bar with kitchen where, in the afternoon, they would prepare the classic cicchetti [Venetian nibbles] frying the fish they hadn’t sold at the market. It was in this simple and family context that the three siblings were raised, developing a love for the art of cooking. A love Lionello first cultivated in catering school and then refined at the Boscolo Etoile academy in Sottomarina. In 1985 together with his family he decided to take on a new journey, giving a new interpretation to tradition while always focusing on the fresh local catch and on typical products from the mainland. First of all, they divided their tasks: Lionello, who started to help his parents when he was very young, leaving early in the morning to shop at the market in Chioggia, dedicated himself to raw fish, while Daniele worked on hot dishes and Lorena on bread making.
What formula allowed them to transform a village trattoria into a 2-Michelin-star restaurant? Lionello has no doubts: «Plenty of work, passion and the desire to do always better, to improve day after day». A long time has passed, since the time when days in the Cera family would begin at dawn, in order to prepare everything, and end late at night. Today they can count on a close-knit team of collaborators, the energies are all dedicated to always create new recipes founded on their experience and reflecting the great Venetian tradition, of which Lionello is an inspired interpreter.
by
Born in Belluno in 1972, he's a freelance journalist. He's been collaborating for the past decade with various food and wine publications, in Veneto and Italy
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Lionello Cera. All the photos are from Brambilla-Serrani
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