With more than raw appeal, Carpaccio finds favor with many flavors

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 12, 1998 by Florence Fabricant

Like Kleenex, carpaccio, which was invented at Harry's Bar in Venice, has taken on generic meaning. But unlike Kleenex, which always means a facial tissue, carpaccio's original definition is on the verge of disappearing.

Carpaccio came on the scene in 1950. How often can you pinpoint a dish like that? The occasion was an exhibition of the works of Vittore Carpaccio, an Italian Renaissance painter who was known for using lots of red contrasted with white. Giuseppe Cipriani, who founded Harry's Bar, created the dish for the exhibition with a customer, who could not eat cooked meat, in mind.

Then, and until perhaps 10 or 15 years ago, carpaccio was strictly a plate of raw, paper-thin beef, either tenderloin or sirloin, trimmed of all fat and drizzled with a mayonnaise-based sauce. Now, however, carpaccio is not necessarily made with beef, and when it is, it is often served cooked or partially cooked. In some confusion with sashimi, fish carpaccios also have become popular. And they, too, might be cooked rather than raw. And as for the garnish, anything goes.

Limoncello in Manhattan offers a fairly traditional interpretation but enriches the sauce with fresh herbs and tops the carpaccio with shavings of Parmesan cheese, a frequent addition these days.

At MC2 in Chicago, the carpaccio is made of raw beef, but it is wrapped around Parmesan bread sticks anointed with whole-grain mustard. Veruka in Manhattan piles caramelized onions, capers and goat

Campiello in Minneapolis sears the beef for carpaccio and plates it with a horseradish cream. The seared beef carpaccio at 312 in Chicago has a peppery edge and as accompaniments has roasted peppers and arugula. At Trois Jean in Manhattan, Asian-style beef carpaccio comes in a pool of chilled cucumber soup.

The so-called carpaccio at Palo d'Asti in San Francisco is made with seared lamb tenderloin and is served with a lentil salad. And Astor Place in Miami Beach has come up with surf-and-turf carpaccio, combining green-chili-seared beef tenderloin and thin slices of cooked lobster with white-bean salad, barbecue aioli and citrus vinaigrette. Carpaccio?

Tuna substitutes nicely for beef in carpaccio. At Le Bernardin in Manhattan it even looks like carpaccio, especially when it is served with a ginger-lime mayonnaise. And talk about inventions. Le Bernardin claims that its founder, Gilbert Le Coze, created the raw-tuna version of the Harry's Bar classic, which he originally served glazed with olive oil and showered with chives.

Aquagrill in Manhattan prepares a peppered-tuna carpaccio that comes with avocado, lemon and grilled Bermuda onion. A crusted tuna carpaccio at Tatou in Manhattan is served with white asparagus. And at Okno in Chicago, there are grilled asparagus on the plate with the salmon carpaccio traced with saffron aioli.

But the latest in carpaccios are made without either meat or fish. In Chicago, at Trocadero, the carpaccio combines beefy portobello mushrooms, also cooked but sliced thin, with white-truffle oil and rosemary aioli. In Boston, Clio serves carpaccio of braised cepes with a little stew of foraged mushrooms and baby wild onions.

At least the Bellini, the other painter-inspired Harry's Bar invention, still is being made with peach juice and sparkling wine.