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Published on: 10/27/2009
Last Visited: 10/27/2009
Alex Atala
In December 2006 Ikarus restaurant will feature:
Alex Atala
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Alex Atala
Right from the very start when he decided to become a chef, Alex Atala already had a feeling for what his guests want and, above all, a feeling for the right mix.
This was perhaps due to having worked as a DJ in his native São Paulo before he started his gastronomical career at the school for hotel management in Namur, Belgium.
At the hotel management school it soon became clear to Atala, that he had an extraordinary talent for the composition of aromas.
After graduating from the school and giving up his DJ career, he toured France, Belgium and Italy for five years, looking over the shoulder of three star chef, Jean-Pierre Bruneau in Ganshoren, Belgium.
He returned to São Paulo in 1994.
Back in his home city Alex Atala soon made a name for himself in the trade, which was reflected amongst other honours in the "Discovery of the Year" award conferred by the Brazilian restaurant association, ABREDI.
In 1999 Atala opened his own two restaurants.
The first, Namesa, was a fast-food restaurant for the city's young and hip public , and the second was the D.O.M. - which is regarded by many gourmets as the best restaurant in Brazil today.
Atala is regularly described as the best chef in São Paulo by the magazines Gula and Veja, and the D.O.M. is frequently singled out as the top restaurant in the city.
The cuisine of the D.O.M. draws on both the European and Brazilian.
Atala's culinary techniques are remarkably extraordinary: airy foams, powdery vegetables, transparent gelatins , delicate hazes and colourful cubes - modernism is at home on Atala's plates.
On the other hand, the Brazilian insists on using local and thoroughly traditional products.
He serves Amazonian fish such as the filhote in tucupi (a juice that is extracted from the cassava root and which finds its origins in Indian cuisine), sprinkles goose liver pate with balsamic vinegar and vanilla and combines tuna fish in black sesame crust with steamed hearts of palm from the pupunha palm tree, honey and ginger.
"The Amazonian area is a universe of aromas," Alex Atala says.
"It will probably take us another 30 years to discover everything that the cuisine of this region can offer us."
Europe's leading chefs have already had their attention drawn to the Brazilian magician: at the third "Madrid Fusiòn", the international summit of leading chefs, held in January 2005, Alex Atala was invited to present his latest creations - a great honour, given that the other speakers included distinguished colleagues such as Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak and Tetsuya Wakuda
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Alex Atala
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Alex Atala
Alex Atala has been a DJ in São Paulo, a backpacker on a European tour, a hotel management student in Belgium … and now he's Brazil's most humorous, most innovative, most laid-back and best cook.
In this interview, the Ikarus guest chef for December 2006 talks about central things such as rice and beans, details like the Amazon, awards and the peculiar fascination of a team sport played in Salzburg…
Mr. Atala, do you know who recommended you to Roland Trettl as a guest chef at Ikarus?
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I asked Alex whether people don't go crazy when they get the same thing at noon every day.
His reply: I tried something different, once.
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While we cooked, Atala talked about his past: he used to be a famous DJ in Brazil, and after wild years spent doing that, he went to Europe in order to learn to cook-and to regain a clear head.
As far as cooking is concerned, at least, he's succeeded sensationally.
But he can still party: as we moved through the clubs, accompanied by four bodyguards (criminality in São Paolo is so rampant that he advised me not to stop at any red lights when on foot, and to keep my mouth shut so as not to be recognized as a tourist), it seemed like practically everybody knew him.
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Alex Atala
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