Real Estate

Arthur Ave.

Arthur Schwartz, known as the Food Maven, likes to peer out the window of his tiny Park Slope kitchen.

“Who in New York City looks out their window and sees a crabapple tree and a cherry tree?” says Schwartz, gazing out on well-manicured gardens.

“This is a crummy kitchen, but the fact that I’m facing a Venetian Gothic building gives me a fantasy that I’m living an Italian life in Brooklyn.”

In many ways, he is. Schwartz, whose newest cookbook, “The Southern Italian Table: Authentic Tastes From Traditional Kitchens,” has been a food critic and connoisseur for several decades. And Schwartz, who runs an Italian cooking school just south of the Amalfi Coast, has a home that reflects his love of food and Italy.

Schwartz and his partner of 27 years, Bob Harned, created their 2,300-square-foot, one-bedroom co-op by merging two neighboring apartments, giving Schwartz the rare Brooklyn luxury of two kitchens — one of which he uses mainly as a pantry — and a separate dining room.

“We bought the second apartment so I could have the dining room,” says Schwartz, who points out dining room table, set up for the upcoming weekend’s bagel breakfast.

“This table opens up to seat 16 or 17 people, so I can do Thanksgiving or Passover. Normally I wouldn’t want more than six or eight people for dinner, but I like the idea that I can have my whole family here.”

Schwartz and Harned paid $295,000 for a 1,350-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment 11 years ago, turning the smaller of the two bedrooms into Harned’s office. Three years later, they bought the slightly smaller one-bedroom apartment next door for $265,000.

“All we did was open up the wall and make this a library,” says Schwartz, indicating the upper tier of his massive living room, which used to be the second apartment’s bedroom. They also turned that unit’s kitchen into the pantry, and its living room into the dining room, which, in addition to the table, houses a daybed for their Italian visitors.

In the pantry, which is also used for last-minute cooking when they have guests, Schwartz installed a pass-through to the dining room and shelves to hold his large collection of colorful jars.

“This is a recent collection. I went a little overboard,” he says. “It started out from practical need. We lived in Connecticut in a country house, and if you didn’t have everything in a jar or tin, the mice got it.”

Just outside the pantry is Schwartz’s collection of copper pots and other copper pieces — some functional and some just for display, such as a 19th-century French candy pot — hanging on a rack modeled after one from his favorite restaurant in Naples.

“I had someone make it for me. I described to him how the joints were done,” says Schwartz. “Also, the hooks were made by a blacksmith in Colorado I found online. I have a thing for hooks.”

Between a small office located just off the original kitchen and the newer wing of the living room is what Schwartz calls probably the largest collection of Italian cookbooks in New York City, and possibly even the country.

“I have in my office a basic core collection, all arranged by Library of Congress catalog. Bob’s a librarian, so I’m not allowed to be random,” he says. “In the living room, 4½ banks of those bookcases are Italian cookbooks, mostly in Italian.”

Another key connection to Italy is Schwartz’s artwork, including a group of 18th-century engravings on display in the living room.

“These four are from a series of 59 done by Sir William Hamilton,” he explains. “The series is called ‘The Volcanoes of Italy,’ but I only have the ones of Mount Etna. This is Lago D’Averno, a lake outside of Naples — the entrance to hell, said Dante and Virgil. I bought them from an antique dealer who didn’t know what he had, otherwise I couldn’t have afforded them.”

Somewhat surprisingly, Schwartz’s favorite room is the intimate, original kitchen.

“I live in this room. I cook almost every day,” he says. “You don’t really need a lot of space. I had a big kitchen [in Connecticut] and realized that having a big kitchen just means that you can make it really dirty.”

Arthur Schwartz’s favorite things

* A sign from the old Lundy’s restaurant in Sheepshead Bay (right)

* The dining room

* His copper collection

* Engravings by William Hamilton

* His cookbook collection

* A 1920s movie poster “Why Sailors Go Wrong,” which starred his partner’s mother, Sally Phipps

* The kitchen and the view from it