In 18th-century Venice, meals did not follow the French 'starter-main-dessert' order. The meal opens with cicheti (small snacks eaten standing in osterie, often lagoon fish in saor), continues with a primo of rice or polenta — rice arrived via Eastern trade routes, polenta from maize became the bread of Venetians in the 18th century — then a secondo of fish or roast meat for the nobility. Sweets are not relegated to the end: fritole and galani are nibbled throughout Carnival, and cioccolata is sipped at the café at any hour of the day.

Mistress of Eastern trade, Venice floods its cuisine with raisins, pine nuts, cinnamon, cloves, and saffron. The signature technique is saor: a sweet-and-sour (agrodolce) of onions confit in vinegar, sweetened with raisins and pine nuts, which preserves fish for several days — a sweet-sour-spicy marriage that appears, like a hallmark, even in desserts.