Amazing Appetizer , Chef Domenico Candela, George Restaurant, Naples (Na)

La Venere di Botticelli

I decided to treat myself to a night out.  Get dressed up and go out to an elegant restaurant in Naples.  You know, enjoy the city by night.  I chose George Restaurant , who less than a week earlier received a prestigious Michelin Star.  Quite an accomplishment for a restaurant that has been open for less than 2 years.  This was my fourth visit to George, and I was familiar with several of Chef Domenico Candela's signature dishes - but not none that were on his Spasso Sensoriale tasting menu rich with new specialties for the fall/winter season.   Spasso Sensoriale which could be translated as a sensory/ sensual stroll.  Dishes pleasing to the eye and palate like this appetizer that Candela entitled La Venere di Boticelli - after the painting The Birth of Venus painted during the Italian Rennaissance by artist  Sandro Botticelli. 

The theme comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a very important oeuvre of the Latin literature. Venus is portrayed naked on a shell on the seashore; on her left the winds blow gently caressing her hair with a shower of roses, on her right a handmaid (Ora) waits for the goddess to go closer to dress her shy body. The meadow is sprinkled with violets, symbol of modesty but often used for love potions.   ( visituffizzi.org)

Candela's Venus is a scallop carpaccio caressed by a cauliflower puree, bergamot, lychee sauce and Siberian caviar.  

Botticelli's Birth of Venus can be found in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.  Candela's?  Much much closer - in the splendida sala of George Restaurant.