Welcome to episode 1934 of the Italian Wine Podcast, Wine, Food & Travel With Marc Millon. Today, he is interviewing Chiara Pavan. She is the Head Chef at Michelin-star Venissa Ristorante on the island of Mazzorbo. She shares with Marc the challenges of cooking sustainably using only local ingredients from the island and the lagoon, including utilisation of invasive species such as the blue crab. More about today’s guest: Chiara Pavan is Cheffe of Venissa, the Michelin-Starred Restaurant – which she guides alongside Francesco Brutto – set within the Venissa estate on Mazzorbo Island, in the Venice Lagoon. With her cucina ambientale, she strives to create a true taste of place while also adopting sustainable practices around the sourcing, production, and preservation of food. In her restaurant she cooks vegetables from her own garden and the current menu focuses on invasive species from the Adriatic Sea. Chiara trained at ALMA and has worked in various Michelin-starred restaurants over the last ten years. She took over the kitchen at Venissa in 2017. She also holds a master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Pisa and a masters in sociology and history of science from EHESS in Paris, with a special focus on gender roles and women’s leadership – an interest which then became very relevant throughout her career as a woman leading a kitchen brigade. Her culinary work and her commitment to low environmental impact cuisine has been recognized with several national and international awards, including the Green Michelin star in 2022, “premio no food waste” per il Gambero Rosso 2024, Best Female Chef from Guide l’Espresso in 2019 and for Identità Golose in 2020. She is member of the advisory board of “Climate Smart Chef” European project. Connect: Website: https://www.venissa.it/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chiarapavan_cheffe  More about the host Marc Millon: Marc Millon, VIA Italian Wine Ambassador 2021, has been travelling, eating, drinking, learning and writing about wine, food and travel for nearly 40 years. Born in Mexico, with a mother from Hawaii via Korea and an anthropologist father from New York via Paris, he was weaned on exotic and delicious foods. Marc and his photographer wife Kim are the authors of 14 books including a pioneering series of illustrated wine-food-travel books: The Wine Roads of Europe, The Wine Roads of France, The Wine Roads of Italy (Premio Barbi Colombini), and The Wine Roads of Spain. Other titles include The Wine and Food of Europe, The Food Lovers’ Companion Italy, The Food Lovers’ Companion France, Wine, a global history. Marc regularly lectures and hosts gastronomic cultural tours to Italy and France with Martin Randall Travel, the UK’s leading cultural travel specialist. He is soon to begin a regular series on Italian Wine Podcast, ‘Wine, food and travel with Marc Millon’. When not on the road Marc lives on the River Exe in Devon, England Connect: quaypress.uk/ marcmillon.co.uk vino.co.uk quaypress.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marc-millon-50868624 Twitter: @Marc_Millon _______________________________ Let's keep in touch! Follow us on our social media channels: Instagram www.instagram.com/italianwinepodcast/  Facebook www.facebook.com/ItalianWinePodcast  Twitter www.twitter.com/itawinepodcast  Tiktok www.tiktok.com/@mammajumboshrimp  LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/italianwinepodcast  If you feel like helping us, donate here www.italianwinepodcast.com/donate-to-show/ Until next time, Cin Cin! Thanks for listening! - This show is all about food and wine pairings, and traveling through Italy with Marc. Join his food, wine and cultural journey!