D.O.M. and Alex Atala: Child Of The Amazon

If we would have to choose the hero of Brazilian cuisine, that would be Alex Ataya.

As the first chef who made its way into the “100 Most Influential People in the World” list of Times, Alex Atala was also voted 9th in the list of the “50 Best Restaurants in the World” with his 2-star restaurant D.O.M. in Sao Paulo.

So what exactly made Alex Atala such a celebrated chef?

Maybe his story of accidentally ending up as a chef after he applied for apprenticeship at a restaurant in Belgium just to get a residence permit in his youth as a punk or his past with rock music and deejaying in a club, or his charismatic tattoos, or his nude pictures with an Amazonian fish Pirarucu hanging around his neck?

Of course we cannot deny it has something to do with media. For that matter, Atala has many things about his life that might interest everyone including the media. Aside from that, his career has been pillared by his perseverance and a brilliant ken of knowledge about gastronomy…

He Re-Explored his own Country

He confessed that he couldn’t love foie gras, caviar, truffle as much as a French and he is “not able to cook French cuisine as well as a Frenchman.” His adventure started when he left Europe understanding that the same applies to the French as well since when it comes to Brazilian cuisine, no one could excel at it quite like he would do.

With such thoughts, he got back to the region he was born to and got down to his business with the cardinal rule that he should promote Brazilian cuisine to the world with “fair and sustainable work ethics.”

As he own a big area in the Amazon rainforest which is home to almost 40 families who lead a quite peaceful life there, in return, he wants them to occasionally procure some of the ingredients from the native people for his restaurant D.O.M. In the company of them, he often goes on a trip to the forest so as to explore the vast selection of ingredients hidden there. He closely observes his friends and the native residents and does not look past even the tiniest bit of a plant or an insect that is used in recipes, and before he brings them to home, he first cooks them under the guidance of native people.

As the founder of the ATA Institute which aims to bring together small producers around the country, Alex Atala and his big team, especially Chef Geovanne Carneiro cook up such great combinations and colors up the culinary scene of Sao Paulo whose streets are already teeming with colors of its renowned graffiti paintings.

 

While Dalva e Ditto, one of his two restaurants in Jardim Paulista that are pretty close to one another, offers Amazonian dishes in a cozier and laid-back atmosphere and is quite trendy particularly among young people, today I’d like to share with you my experience with Atala’s D.O.M. which has a more ceremonious profile.

Deo Optimo Maximo (God the Best and the Greatest)

D.O.M., a restaurant where I’ve been frequenting for the last three years, was opened in 1999 on a dead-end street in Jardim Paulista.

Just as you enter the restaurant, you will see a fine bar and a kitchen covered with glass. When you head inside, a dinner room with a chic atmosphere will welcome you. Again, the mezzanine floor above is another nice section of the restaurant.

To be frank, I won’t call D.O.M. as “cozy, peaceful or friendly” as I’d call most of the restaurants that I’ve been to so far. Because, the profile of the diners could be defined as “flamboyant and arrogant” and this fact actually might disturb those who visit the restaurant for the first time. But again, the extremely friendly attitude of Atala helps you out of such negative feelings and allows you to focus on the menu without further ado.

The tasting menu we chose, a combination of almost 20 tastes paired with local wines, started with one of the most renowned types of Minas Gerais cheese accompanied by some butter and a fine sauce with garlic.

It also came with green bell peppers filled with a combination of sparkling wine and a nice Brazilian sake as a welcoming drink. Aside from the marvelous drink, a bite from the pepper gave a pleasant fresh taste that spread across our palates.

One of the foods that Brazil has been championing for some time and has been cooked in several forms by Alex Atala too, in other words palm heart again came in an unconventional recipe. In the new menu of the restaurant, it was fermented and served with spirulina, a type of blue-green algae found around that region which is a rich source of protein that has recently been discovered by the pharmaceutical companies in Turkey too.

Another dish which was composed of codium seaweed, cuttle fish, cucumber and watermelon provided a refreshing taste in a perfect harmony.

Oysters featured “cupuaçu” fruit and mango, the taste of which was balanced with some whisky. Its creative presentation was liked by us all.

Lemongrass which I both use as an ingredient in the kitchen and brew it as an herbal tea, came in combination with palm heart at D.O.M. which is again one of the tastes that I cannot resist. As the palm heart was sliced quite thinly like “capellini,” the thinnest form of spaghetti, and enriched with lemongrass, it was complemented by some scallops just to create a gastronomical explosion in our palates.

Smoked mackerel had an enjoyable presentation with red onion cream and “baroa potato,” which is genuine to Brazil.

One of the biggest fresh water fishes, pirarucu was served with tucupi sauce which was prepared from the edible roots of Brazilian “manioc” and tapioca starch derived from the roots of a short type of palm. As it was extremely tasty, you could smell the whole Amazon rainforest in just one bite!

The following dish was a slice of grouper on top of a mini rice made from tapioca which was fried enough to turn crispy and drizzled with some vanilla-flavored olive oil. It is my favorite on the menu with every bite just exploding like a taste bomb in my mouth. As I think the rice was similar to couscous or firik pilaf, I think it could be a successful attempt to combine them with any fish that may be found in Turkey as well.

The next arrivals at the table were palm heart cut into fettucine-thick stripes and boosted with local mushrooms, and another dish featuring squid and cashew which is a very popular nut in Brazil.

When we moved onto meat meals, the first dish was sweetbread with bearnez sauce, which is a type of sauce derived from the basic French sauce “hollandez.” Served with some sweet potatoes, it got a good mark from the table.

Duck confit was cooked with wine and came with some “yam” puree. Since a lot people mistake yam for sweet potatoes, it is originated in the Caribbean and relatively sweeter and bigger in size. On top of that, as it contains huge amount of poison, it should always be cooked before eaten.

As we drew near to the end of the night, sorbet that arrived at the table was met with questioning eyes since the combination of meringue and yoghurt was crowned with the popular food of the Amazon rainforests: Maniwara red ant! The ant tasted like a mixture of lemongrass and ginger and when that taste was blended with that of the sorbet, it left a big smile on our faces.

Originated in the Auvergne region of France, aligot is a dish made from a mixture of melted cheese, mashed potatoes and garlic. D.O.M.’s take on the dish was made from gruyere and “lor” cheese brought from Minas Gerais, one of the 26 states in Brazil. As it was almost a culinary show with its creative presentation, it was the last dish before desserts.

The first was lime, banana ravioli and “priprioca,” a precious Amazonian local root. The second and the final dessert was a refreshing recipe with pumpkin, vegetable coal and tapioca ice cream.

When will This Happen in Anatolia?

If you want to feel the Amazon rainforest on your palate, D.O.M. and Dalva e Dito are two restaurants that you should visit! As for price/performance ratio, I find Mani a better choice, which I shared with you last week. Besides, whichever restaurant you may visit, each one of them recommends you the other ones. That’s how the culinary scene in Brazil is closely knitted; something that we’d like to see in Turkey as well.

Alex Atala and his team seem to have achieved a great job which should be highly appreciated.

I enviously admire their inquisitive attitude towards their own country and the unique menus they create while in my head there is only one bitter question: “When will we see something like this happening in Anatolia and Turkish cuisine?”

Bon appétit and enjoy the taste of life…

D.O.M. Restaurante

www.domrestaurante.com.br

R. Barão de Capanema, 549 - Jardins
São Paulo - SP, Brazil

+55 11 3088-0761