TOGO

Big plans are afoot in 2012 for a popular Brazilian chef who has become a ubiquitous presence at major gastronomy events around the world, and whose name has gained instant recognition among the upper tier of the culinary elite.

In a profile of Alex Atala, chef of Sao Paulo restaurant D.O.M. in Brazil, editors of The World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards devoted a post this week to the man's goings-on this year, as he works feverishly to propel the virtues of traditional Brazilian cuisine and ingredients around the world.

Internationally, Atala burst onto the culinary scene after first being inducted into the World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2006. Last year, D.O.M. broke into the top 10 list and climbed 11 spots from 2010 to be ranked the seventh best restaurant in the world.

Other rising Brazilian restaurants that made the World's 50 Best Restaurants list last year included Fasano and Mani.

After presenting alongside Brazilian design duo Fernando and Humberto Campana at Paris des Chefs this week, a gastronomic event that pairs chefs with artists and designers in a collaborative culinary project, Atala was invited to serve a tasting menu as a guest chef at French chef Alain Ducasse's flagship restaurant at the Hotel Plaza Athénée.

The multi-course meal included dishes like black rice, a staple native to Brazil, and vegetables in Brazil nut milk, and priprioca ravioli, a type of local root, with lemon and banana.

Atala's ascent to the top of his game, meanwhile, comes at an opportune time when interest in all things Brazilian is rising around the world given the country's strength as an emerging economic powerhouse.

Atala's own driving force is clear. His fierce loyalty to Brazil's gastronomic heritage is manifested on the menu at D.O.M., which focuses on rescuing obsolete and forgotten Brazilian foods, scavenging the Amazon for new and exciting ingredients, and introducing them to diners in a contemporary and masterful way.

Core to his menu are ingredients like priprioca, black rice, pupunha heart of palm, a large white-fleshed fish pirarucu and herbs and edible flower indigenous to Brazil.

Aside from his kitchen alchemy, Atala is also working on two major food publications this year, one that will be published by Phaidon and promises to be photo-rich, and the other a gastronomy magazine called YAM, reports The World's 50 Best Restaurants. The publications will join his latest bilingual coffee table book Amazonia, which hit bookstores last year.

Publié le 29.01.2012