Dinner with Professor Grieco
Harvard Club of Victoria members and their guests are invited to a special presentation by Professor Allen Grieco from the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies on Friday the 15th of August 2014. The presentation will take place at Guy Grossi's Merchant Osteria Veneta where guests will enjoy a scrumptious 3-course Venetian meal. This will be a small and intimate event with limited places so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Professor Allen Grieco
Professor Grieco offers a breadth of expertise and experience to both Harvard University and the wider community. His teaching, research and public profile demonstrate a lifelong commitment to promoting the connection between language, history and food in Italy and Europe. Professor Grieco is also a renowned expert of the language of botany, the history of Italian gardens and its reception in nineteenth-century England, and the interactions between Latin, Italian, Spanish, German and French in the history of medicine, food and viticulture.
Professor Grieco’s position as Senior Research Associate and Director of the gardens of the Villa I Tatti Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies shows the breadth of his expertise and knowledge of European history and languages. He speaks Italian, English, French, and German (all mother tongues as his mother is American, father Italian and he lived most of his life in Italy, German-speaking Switzerland and Paris). Professor Grieco also reads Latin and ancient Greek.
Such breadth of knowledge and his linguistic skills is evident from his publications, research projects and connections with academic and public institutions: Professor Grieco has published extensively on the cultural history of food in Italy from the 14th to the 16th centuries and co-edited several collective volumes amongst which: Food Excesses and Constraints in Europe, special issue of Food & History (2006), Dalla vite al vino. Fonti e problemi della vitivinicoltura italiana nel medioevo (Bologna, 1994) and Le Monde végétal (XIIe–XVIIe siècles): savoirs et usages sociaux (Vincennes, 1993). Currently co editor-in-chief of Food & History (Turnhout, Brepols), he is also in charge of a bibliographic project on the history of food in Europe funded by the Mellon Foundation and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. He has taught at Harvard as well as at the University of Florence and Bologna, and has created an English-language M.A. program at the Università delle Scienze Gastronomiche, Pollenzo (Italy).
Merchant Osteria Veneta
In the Rialto Towers forecourt, Merchant Osteria occupies a redbrick Gothic building in a covered laneway that wouldn't look out of place in Venice.
Inside, murals and artworks, glass cabinets and marble details create a sophisticated atmosphere for the early-evening ritual of cicheti, Venetian-style tapas. Share almond-crusted Coffin Bay scallops and pumpkin arancini with a signature Bellini cocktail, or order a hearty bowl of risotto, polenta or tortellini with a glass of Italian red.
True to its name, Merchant Osteria Veneta is relaxed, informal and offers a range of dining experiences featuring the ingredients and flavours of the Veneto.
Date: Friday the 15th of August, 7pm
Location: Merchant Osteria Veneta, The Rialto - 495 Collins St Melbourne
Enquiries: Mandy Croker, mandy@harvardclubofvictoria.org.au
Cost: $110 per person
Enquiries: Mandy Croker, mandy@harvardclubofvictoria.org.au
Cost: $110 per person
Bookings: Click here to book tickets