English Version | Blind Bite

For a long time now, the cinema, along with the themed channels that have sprung up, has focused on the fascinating world of haute cuisine. The epitome of exaggeration, however, came with The Menu (2022). A completely transformed Ralph Fiennes, with a countenance so heavy that even Spielberg couldn't pull it off in Schindler's List, plays the role of the grandiose Chef Slowik who is welcomed into the most exclusive restaurant imaginable, located on an island that would be deserted if it weren't for the staff living there, where the “protein” and vegetables are also grown. A deified figure in the world of haute cuisine, it soon becomes clear that, in the end, he is tormented beyond what is acceptable and drags along customers who pay well over a thousand dollars for a menu that they only get to know as the dishes are presented (to the viewer too). Anything more than that is a spoiler, so we can at least say that all the stereotypes, dilemmas, and mysterious paths along which the complicated relationships between haute cuisine, critics, journalists, the economic groups that own the restaurants and their customers' travel are explained here in an incredibly precise way, which is uncomfortable because the classification is “Horror Movie”. In fact, these expensive Tasting Menus, which are defined as real experiences, are the house silver of the most renowned restaurants. That's how it was at Ferran Adriá's El Bulli in Roses, Catalonia, and that's how it is at Dieter Koschina's Vila Joya in Albufeira, and there's nothing very transcendental behind it beyond the chef's daily afternoon visit to the market to choose the best products. He chooses them based on their quality. It is on the basis of this choice that he prepares that day's menu. It is at a meeting with the head waiter and sommelier that the dishes are tasted, the order is decided, the way they will be served, and the wines that will accompany the tasting. The customers have booked so far in advance that it would be impossible for them to know what will be served. It's a mystery that makes you long for the date to arrive and the only certainty is that it will be incredible and worth every penny (pardon the archaism). And speaking of which (the archaic penny), let's just say that apart from the classic “if you work hard one day you'll be rich”, the biggest lie in the universe is “the eyes also eat”. And with this non-consensual statement come decades of serious commitment to the presentation of dishes: with lustrous reductions dripping onto the plate, spherifications topping the protein, frostings spread out with the brushstroke of Jackson Pollock, and clouds of liquid nitrogen, photographic plasticity that overthrew the kitschy images of pink cakes from the cooking books of the 80s and which led to the emergence of a horde of cell phone photographers on Instagram is being overthrown, because, after all, some say that, when it comes to what we eat, sight is an even less important sense than touch (and here we wink at those who stubbornly eat sardines, jackfruit, and roast chicken with their hands and those who know that a codfish pastry taken to the mouth with a fork is no fun). Yes, there's a whole other constellation gravitating towards the world of restaurants where chefs serve people blindfolded. Is this just a trend? Is it even acceptable?

There are no tickets left for the next Dining In The Dark Lisboa, an event that has already taken place at least at Obicà Mozzarella Bar, in Príncipe Real, and at Noobai, in Miradouro de Santa Catarina (Adamastor), but which is part of Fever's set of original events, also known as FeverUp, the largest online platform for finding live entertainment, with the mission of “democratizing access to culture and entertainment around the world”. With Dining In The Dark, the aim is to amplify the flavors, enhancing all the other senses by depriving us of sight. Supposedly, blindfolded, the taste buds and sense of smell are encouraged to compensate, which leads us to focus even more on the flavors and aromas, “increasing the level of the experience”. Three courses tasted over 90 minutes in complete darkness, with meat, fish, and vegetarian options, for just €22 doesn't sound like much to me personally, but in the age of social media, this comment would be enough to merit a “that's all jealousy because you weren't invited”. So be it! On a different level was the event that took place on July 10th and 11th at JNcQUOI Asia Avenida da Liberdade, which hosted the Wagyu-mafia, or Wagyu Mafia. For those of you who are familiar with this meat (Wagyu means “Japanese cattle”), you'll know that it identifies any of the four species of Japanese cattle, Matsusaka, Kobe, Yonezawa, and Ōmi, but you also know and above all, that there's nothing in this world that compares to it. there is nothing in the world that compares to it. The most respected chef dedicated to its preparation is Hisato Hamada, who, together with entrepreneur Takafumi Horie, founded Wagyu-mafia, the world's leading with seven restaurants open around the world - but only for members. At JNcQUOI, the menu for the two dinners, which could only seat 18 people, cost €550, was top secret and, a few days beforehand, generated heated discussion on the networks with people trying to guess whether they would be serving the Kobe Beef Chateaubriand Cutlet Sandwich, which made Wagyumafia famous, or the katsu sando, a pork sandwich (so it wasn't beef?) on Japanese milk bread. But if you want to go down a few notches in terms of exclusivity in restaurants, without having to sacrifice quality, there are still places throughout Portugal where reservations don't exist, where huge queues form at the door waiting to be shown to your seat, which only exists because it has just been vacated. Then we sat down on a bench, among people we hadn't met before. And, without our eyes on our cell phones, we chat with these illustrious strangers, let off a little steam about the game on TV, sip wine or an imperial to push down the sausages wrapped in cabbage, the peas with eggs, the pataniscas or the ribs that have slowly roasted in the oven until our stomachs and hearts are full. Then we say “See you tomorrow” and, if things go well, we've gone in blind and come out with a smile. It's a kind of blind date that always goes well.

I made a friend today and there's nothing more precious in the world, Sérgio. Rodrigo Meneses is the Alheiras Man. I met him at a gathering organized by Festival F where we had a conversation, mediated by presenter Vanessa Oliveira, about, you guessed it, food. To get a sense of the young man, let's get down to business: “Being from Trás-os-Montes makes me a person who likes to eat. If there are people who have a passion for food, it's the people of the mountainous region. Where everything tastes better. He remembers with nostalgia the roasts in the wood oven and the aroma of smoke from the various woods used to keep it at the ideal temperature. The simplicity of bread. It comes in all shapes and forms, which each village displays with passion and pride. The carrots are sweet when cooked and lend an incredible delicacy to the meat in the pot, the cabbages that when drizzled with olive oil become flavors close to the divine, the onions that have just been plucked from the earth and sprinkled with red wine or vinegar and a handful of coarse salt, and she concludes: “This has always been my passion, which comes very much from the cultural upbringing that we end up having by living and growing up in the lands of Trás-os-Montes.” Yes, for many, Trás-os-Montes is THE mystery: “Geographical isolation creates gastronomic gems that have been cleaned up by time and the absence of external influences. This is how the truly endogenous breeds and products of that region are refined, and it's not for nothing that Torga called Trás-os-Montes the Marvelous Kingdom.” It was this passion for food that made him change careers. He left advertising and dedicated himself to a full-time career as a foodie, showcasing the best of what we have, first with the program Gosto de Portugal on 24Kitchen, then in cooking workshops at the Time Out Academy, where he taught some dishes from popular cuisine, the best of all cuisines. The Mesas Bohemias project brought to Lisbon and Porto the restaurants considered to be bastions of cuisine, chosen because they were icons in these fields, without flowers or spherifications, celebrating food in all its splendor. It was from the “Mesas Bohemias years” that the idea of having a restaurant of popular Portuguese cuisine was born. A project he shared with Chef Nuno Diniz where all the ingredients used were curated by both of them: “We had producers making special things for us. And the people who visited us were amazed by the discoveries they made or by our challenges. To give you an idea, there was sweet sarrabulho on the dessert menu. And it was one of the best sellers. But Rodrigo has his eyes on the future. And that future means having a place where a handful of people who like to eat come together, period. You don't need to know what you're going to eat, you just need to be sure that it's going to be good. Take note: there will be a small studio in Algés where magical ingredients and products will arrive from the best sources “to be celebrated among friends, around a table with wines that are just as special. No pretensions. Just good food. I'm going to hold themed dinners celebrating dishes or ingredients, period.”

At the highest level of my respect is Chef Nuno Diniz. He has cooked in more than 90 countries (a fact that is responsible for his essential freestyle, which allows him to jump from foie gras to fried horse mackerel), with training at the Alain Ducasse, Lenôtre, and Ritz Escoffier schools and in various other smaller courses, proven in the kitchens of places like Frères Ibarboure, Claes Claesz, Le Vercoquin, Ivy, Volver, Tágide, Rota das Sedas, Grémio Literário, Hotel York House, Hotel Santa Margarida, Quinta do Monte d'Oiro and, finally, Revolução, which Rodrigo was talking about. With the violent interruption of this project (two days after it opened), he decided to spend some time in Trás-os-Montes, with his elderly mother, in a small village with a dozen inhabitants, Sezelge: “I had discovered it many years before, while preparing my first book, Entre Ventos e Fumos, then I started spending Christmas there with the family, and in 2023 I moved permanently. Life here is fascinating, time, that inclement friend who warns us every day that it's running out, seems to last a little longer, the unsurpassable quality of life that sweetened Mom's last years even more, and my obvious saturation with traveling and too many people, did the rest. I'm in the village, a Lisboner in sweet exile, and I'm staying here. In the last two years, I've written two more books, A Cozinha Popular Elitista in 2023 and, to be published at the end of October, Crónicas de um Cozinheiro no Exílio (Chronicles of a Cook in Exile), which would have been impossible if I hadn't taken refuge from the exhausting city confusion.” As far as mystery is concerned, Nuno Diniz makes what is considered the Holy Grail in the still relatively small world of Portuguese chefs, O Cozido. Just like that. Except that being invited to Chef Nuno Diniz's O Cozido is much more than being invited to Lux's anniversary party for a Lisbon high roller. It's The Happening: “Cozidos obviously include a spectacle component, a certain arrogance, and the desire to do better and better... They began in an almost definitive format in the days of York House, around 2005. Since then, they've only taken place three times a year, every year until 2024, when there was only one! Access has always been limited and difficult, which has meant that for the last twelve years, they have always been completely sold out well in advance. And how can we do something that is apparently so simple, but which causes huge demand?” - an aside to mention that the last Cozido sold out in 10 minutes more than two months in advance and was paid for right at the time of booking - “using absolutely exceptional quality smoked products, almost all bought from small producers who, until I came along, had mostly never sold outside their respective villages. This results in an impressive 110 different varieties”. As with everything, there are secrets. Nuno's is the one that should be the basis of any stew lover: “Never consider the vegetables as a minor part, always wanting the best potatoes, the most flavorful carrots, the regional cabbages, and all the immense variety that appears, or not, depending on the geographical origin of the stews, that is, we can have pears, pumpkins, green beans, broccoli, pimpernel, various beans and, with confirmed identity, chickpeas, yams, sweet potatoes, cuscos and turnips. Then there are the fresh meats, always from local breeds which can include different cuts of beef or veal, pork or lamb. Even the rice is from the Mondego Valley or the Sado”. What is so mysterious about a Cozido, on which a menu was always provided with the names and origins of everything served, including, since 2006, the names of the producers (something that Nuno Diniz is a pioneer in Portugal and which, fortunately, other chefs have also started to do in recent years)? The products we don't normally have access to are a real mystery. We think we like stew until we taste it. From then on, we deify it. For this recent hermit, it's simple: “Without the producers and the remarkable brigades that accompany us, we cook would never be anything.” Blind dinners on your menu? “No! It's not going to happen. It's a trend that won't catch on because it can't catch on. A meal has to be integral. Vision is part of that wholeness and I don't care much about ephemeral trends that make no sense to me. It's almost as bad as eating with your nose plugged!” In short, Chef Nuno Diniz (or Nuno Diniz, the Cook) addresses in his forthcoming book (which we are privileged to be able to reveal first-hand) what can generate some discomfort: “Cooking with love, putting love on the plate, loving the product, all platitudes that have been monikered to exhaustion and mean nothing! We're professionals, we have to cook every day and we don't know the vast majority of our customers. Love? Mothers (and mine was a passionate old lady), children, or girlfriends, and there you can look for a smile or just a caressing look that will comfort and delight you. The world becomes even more beautiful and life more resplendent”. Then you cook. With plenty of light.

Originally translated from The Mystery Issue, published October 2024. Full credits and stories are in the print issue.