By ED SCOTT
STAFF WRITER

VENICE — In many ways, Chef Pasquale Stallone is carrying on a local tradition. Combining arts, culture and food in Sarasota County is as old as when performers entertained at the homes of John and Mable Ringling in Sarasota and Dr. and Mrs. Fred Albee in Nokomis in the 1920s.

Now, there are more public places to eat while also being entertained. There’s a Mattison’s restaurant at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, the Selby House Café By Michael’s On East at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and the Sarasota Museum of Art and Bistro, among others.

In Venice, between stops at venues on the city’s “cultural campus,” patrons can visit Art Caffe, an Italian eatery inside the Venice Art Center.

“That’s why I chose to be here, because the art center inspired me, because all of the dishes we put together is like art, because food also is art.”

Chef Pasquale Stallone at the Art Caffe, an Italian eatery inside the Venice Art Center.

Art Caffe owner Chef Pasquale Stallone said. “I related the art center with my personality, with what I am doing with food, and I say this is the best combination and I really love this place; to put together the art from the art center with my dish.”
Stallone, a native of Apulia, Italy, grew up in Milan and attended culinary school, where he learned the basics of his art. He lived and worked in Costa Rica for five years before migrating to Miami in 1992.
He has worked at Italian, French and American restaurants over the years. He was executive chef at Pelican, a restaurant in Miami, when he met Robert DeNiro’s personal chef and learned how to prepare Asian cuisine.
Soup, salad and sandwich offerings are on the menu at Art Caffe. But Stallone sees art creation in how — for example — he prepares a salad. A lot of thought goes into how ingredients are cut and tossed.
“The word is composition,” he said. “When we go to another place (restaurant),
not everybody puts the dish in harmony. Everything has got to be in harmony. And that’s
me. I’m a little bit particular on these things.”
IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY
In music, a symphony audience expects to hear Beethoven’s Fifth just the way he wrote it. Patrons at
The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art can reliably see Peter Paul Rubens’ five Triumph of the Eucharist paintings, unchanged with every visit.