Applying the concept of four-hands dinner, Portuguese chefs Duarte Rodrigues and Nuno Bergonse have teamed up to bring Magma a tasting menu inspired by the most important Azorean products.
The two chefs combined different techniques to add irreverence and innovation to products that are often found on Azorean tables. For Nuno Bergonse, this type of event is of great importance as it helps to "promote Azorean gastronomy", with the aim of "using talent and new blood to refresh what is already very good in Azorean gastronomy".
Dinners like this, promoted by Senhora da Rosa, Tradition & Nature Hotel, show the local population that it is possible to "do different things with what already exists on the land".
As far as contact with local products is concerned, Nuno Bergonse considers himself "privileged", given that he already knows some of the Azorean islands, as well as "the climate, the culture, the people and the gastronomy". However, this knowledge does not give him any kind of advantage, since a dinner of this kind is "always a challenge", one that allows him to continue learning and discovering more about the products being used, "which makes everything even more interesting and challenging".
With regard to the creative process, and taking into account the complicity that unites the two chefs, "everything flowed very naturally", even though, with the variety of products available, it would be possible to "spend a whole year making dinners like this".
Joana Damião, for her part, guarantees that every product "is in season and as fresh as possible", with this dinner being a "reflection of the restaurant's day-to-day life" and of the desire to "do something different, more elaborate" and including another chef.
The founder and head of Senhora da Rosa, Tradition & Nature Hotel stresses that the goal is to "repeat these dinners in October, November and December", and to do so by inviting other chefs to share their experience in the hotel's main kitchen.
In total, this tasting menu included six moments where some of the most typical products on Azorean tables had the opportunity to shine. In the first moment, Nuno Bergonse did not dare to forget the fresh cheese, garnished with beetroot and grilled peach.
In the second moment, Duarte Rodrigues, the house’s chef, presented fish from the Azores with seafood foam, followed by Nuno Bergonse’s combination of fish and squid with taro root cooked in various ways – beyond the popular boiled taro – and seaweed, a product that he believes has enormous potential in the Azores.
This was followed by beef tenderloin with vegetables and sweet potato millefeuille, and then by two sweet moments: a combination of Azorean pineapple, rum, and safflower.
At the end of the meal, it was time for Gorreana tea (cubed) to shine.
