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Gastronomy: the challenge of reinventing the dishes that have centuries of history
Friday night. Diluvia in the city. Eating out may not be the best plan. But when you go through the door of the restaurant, there is a certain atmosphere of camaraderie, almost homely. Accordion and clarinet music sound. Laughter, smell of rich food. It could be a Jewish wedding or it could be the living room of a grandmother's house who spent the whole day cooking for her grandchildren. Tomás Kalika, the chef of the restaurant in question, Mishiguene, explains that this is the starting point of a journey of emotional memory. A passport to the flavors that evoke memories, which connect with the kitchen of childhood.
"This is not a restaurant you come to eat because you're hungry, you're looking for an experience, whether you're Jewish or not, we were all boys, we ate at our grandmothers' and we know the taste of home cooking," Kalika adds.
In the last time, different restaurants imposed the challenge of reinventing Armenian, Moroccan and Jewish traditional recipes to take them to the level of haute cuisine and culinary experiences. But is it possible to be encouraged to reinvent a centuries-old tradition? What is gained and what is lost along the way?
That tour chose restaurants like El Manto, with Armenian food, and Mishiguene, which in October was chosen among the 50 best restaurants in Latin America. Other venues such as Benaim, of Jewish street food and Tetuán, a Moroccan brazier, try to give foodie a twist on ethnic dishes, in another of the trendsetting items: the foodtruck style inside.
Although they have different traditions, the so-called gastronomy of the Middle East has points in common, as a result of which many of those towns were under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire.
Until some time ago, El Manto was a very traditional restaurant of Armenian food, in Palermo. Then, David Khandjian, the owner, decided to renew the letter and went out to find a chef who was encouraged to take the recipes of his mother and his aunts to a higher technical level. That could be the differential to find a place on the gastronomic map. The survey of the competition indicated that Armenian food in Buenos Aires is synonymous with abundance and good taste, at moderate prices and with traditional recipes. With not very modern or elegant premises, where the food is prioritized to the place.
"Without disrespecting tradition, we seek to innovate with more modern techniques, which include molecular cooking," explains Álvaro de Frutos, the chef. "We had to get visitors to connect with Armenian cuisine through the visit to the place, the textures, the consistency and the global experience," he explains.
Reinventing the letter meant to be encouraged to design a hummus that is made with organic chickpeas and that instead of a crown of chopped parsley, it has chlorophyll of this plant and a small salad of fresh chickpeas in the center so that the entrance door to the food Armenian, that is hummus, be a sensory journey of textures and aromas. Do not just eat a paste of chickpeas while waiting for the dish.
For the braised lamb, which takes six hours of fire, a prolonged and constant cooking was used, at low temperature. For the dishes that carry yogurt, mousses were developed with molecular techniques, to invite to play with new consistencies. In the kitchen of El Manto, everything has an exact time. The bread has been leavened for 18 hours and is born from a sourdough that has 365 days of fermentation.
A huge encapsulated brazier is the center of attention in Tetuán, the restaurant that invites the flavors of themaroquin food. Here, for example, the beef eye skewer is not another dish. The twist that was given includes marinating green tea, anise, chile and coriander, damask jam, garlic and mustard grains, which can be accompanied with cauliflower in IPA tempura and curry.
In Benaim, the main course is the pastrami with relish and bittersweet gherkins, in pletzalej bread, an alternative version of the typical street food consumed in Jerusalem.
Florentín is a modern "kiosk" of Jewish cuisine that opened in front of Plaza Francia, which is named after a new neighborhood in Tel Aviv, where recipes from the Middle East are served, using modern cooking techniques. Sesame ice cream is made with liquid nitrogen. Ideal is to accompany it with a cucumber soda.
Emotional memory
Mishiguene came to occupy a space that did not exist: homemade food evolved into forms of haute cuisine. "Many cuisines, such as Spanish or Italian, were reformulated and, perhaps, the only one that had not had a moment of analysis and reformulation was the Jewish one," says Kalika.
The attempt to bring the millenary kitchen to a higher technical level represents a great challenge. Is it possible to reinvent traditional cuisine? How to compete with grandma's recipes? A message on the menu of Mishiguene warns along with the varenikes. "Those of the bobe are the best, these are our version with love, respect and tradition."
"Each person who comes compares the dishes that we make with those of his mother or grandmother, trying to compete with memories would be a big mistake, we seek to empower them, we serve clients & bipolar & amp; # 39; serving you and your memory, we have to discuss with your palate, so we bet on the global experience, with the music, the atmosphere, we want you to sit in the living room of your grandmother's house, where the At night, with low light and those dishes that I had prepared for hours for you, and it made you feel guilty if you did not finish every bite, we want to give you that trip, "says Kalika.
The borsch it offers is perhaps the best example. It's about the cold beet soup, as his grandmother Olga prepared for him. "I always ate the cream first and then the soup," he explains. That reminiscence triggered the idea. Today, in Mishiguene, it is served with a small cream sphere, which you have to put in your mouth and make it explode against the palate before trying the borsch. "This is my tribute to my grandmother's kitchen," she says.