Marrying 1950’s St Tropez with Brazilian Brilliance
Restaurateurs Romain Fargette and Alexis Collette are set to open at new restaurant in London’s Mayfair at the beginning of January which will combine “the vibrancy of Latin America with the unbridled glamour of 1950’s St Tropez.”
The Chefs’ Forum caught up with Luciana Berry, a Masterchef The Professionals semi finalist, who is overseeing the menu to find out more.
“The menu is based around sharing and is a perfect marriage of Japanese techniques and Brazilian flare and ingredients,” Luciana said. “It’s a very exciting project. We should be open early in the new yea. I’m just putting the finishing touches to the menu now.
“You can expect to see a lot of my favourite dishes such as:
Cured and dried beef with cassava. “Cassava is our potato and we use it in so many ways like cassava chips with wasabi mayo.
Costelao and miso “This is ribs flavoured with a miso glaze.”
Moqueca de camarao “Amazonian river prawns & cashew in a special broth. Really delicious.”
Queijo de Prala, Brazilian beach cheese which has been skewered and glazed.
Bacalhau, I love these. Salted cod croquettes which are really crunchy. What I love about Mano is that there are so many different ideas and ingredients in Brazil than diners in London have never come across before. London is so diverse now that I think that what we are doing will be very exciting and new. A great example is Pudim – a Brazilian creme caramel made with tapioca.
Underneath the hood of the menu is a fusion of Japanese and Brazilian. It’s not widely known but the biggest community of Japanese outside Japan is in Brazil and it’s that community that is so fascinating to me.
“Latin American cuisine is so varied and none more so than Brazil. There are amazing dishes and fantastic ingredients and I am looking forward to exploring all that it has to offer.”
