Antonia Klugmann of L’Argine a Venco was for Gelinaz Stay In remixing Perfecte Rocher.
Rocher had two loves growing up in Valencia; his grandfather’s restaurant, where he helped out in the kitchen, and playing punk rock. He moved to London with his guitar at 17 for the latter and ended up in restaurant kitchens, returning to Spain to train at el Bulli, Martín Berasategui and Ricard Camarena. Arriving in California he worked at Manresa and Campton Place before opening Tarsan i Jane in Seattle in 2016, where his kitchen produces Pacific Northwest Valencian.
What was most challenging and what was best about for you about this Gelinaz shuffle, Antonia?
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The biggest challenge was finding my personal way to make sense of the evening. It wasn’t enough to destroy and reconstruct the matrix. I wanted to understand Chef’s (Perfecte Rocher of Tarsan i Jane) mood and taste and reinterpret them by only using local ingredients; without turning upside-down his or my own personality. As always the biggest challenge was also the thing that I liked most in the event.
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What do you think to have the guest chef from who you got matrixes and you in common and what are the greatest differences between you two?
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As me, Chef Rocher loves to match diverse tastes like sour and salty or sweet and sour. But the way we pair these tastes is very different. He works a lot with contrasts while I search for an harmonic reconstruction of tastes. My approach is less muscular.
Which was your favourite dish you created for this dinner?
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The dish that I liked the most was “Smoked cuttlefish, prosciutto broth, Cragno sausage, chili pepper and sesame oil”. It’s a dish that strongly identifies with our territory and with the North East of Italy. The original dish was “Smoky Otoro rose with 5J’s 100% bellota jamón ibérico and charred red bell peppers”. The idea of the remix was to work on the smoky taste applying it to the cuttlefish instead of the tuna. Respect the pairing with ham, but using a prosciutto of a producer from Cormons, a little village close to L’Argine a Vencò. I was inspired by the spiciness of the pepper. I decided to present the dish by pairing it with a local smoked sausage that has the typical texture of ‘Nduja: a particularly spicy, spreadable pork “salume” from Calabria (South of Italy) rich of hot red peppers.
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Will this dish become part of your regular menu?
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Yes I decided to keep it on the regular menu!
