6 e 7 de April na Taberna 1300

Young Chefs with Guts 2014

Young Chefs with Guts featured a premium casting in the 2nd edition, on 6th and 7th april, in a charming location, 1300 Taberna, LX Factory.

Two exclusive dinners for 45 lucky persons each were prepared from fish and seafood of the Portuguese coast. This briefing kept in mind one the missions of Young Chefs with Guts: to promote the unique qualities and potential of Portuguese products.

Both dinners included 12 courses, with top national wine harmonization by sommeliers João Chambel and Rodolfo Tristão. Each chef, either Portuguese or foreigner, was challenged to cook out of the box and explore his own gastronomic path. The event started with a cocktail animated with a surprise guest who had interesting stories and know-how to share. On Sunday, Harley Hubs presented his handmade, quality Algarve knives and on Monday, Pedro Bastos, from Nutrifresco, brought two skilled fish filleters who showed how to make perfect fillets.

The sous-chefs who participated on the first dinner were Nacho Baucells and Hernán Luchetti (El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain, Three Michelin Stars, second of the World 50th Best), chef Alessandro Negrini (Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia, Milan, Italy, Two Michelin Stars), sous-chef João Alves (The Yeatman, Gaia, Portugal, One Michelin Star) and the special guest pastry chef was Carlos Fernandes (M.B. Martin Berasategui, Tenerife, Spain, Two Michelin Stars).

The second dinner had an absolute première in Portugal of the danish restaurant Noma (Two Michelin Stars, the first of the World 50^th Best), through its Portuguese sous-chef Leonardo de Sousa Pereira. Sous-chef Sven Wassmer (Focus, Vitznau, Switzerland, Two Michelin Stars) and chef João Simões (previously sous-chef of José Cordeiro, Feitoria, Lisbon) and the list was completed with the pastry chef Francisco Gomes (Confeitaria Colonial, Barcelos, Portugal).

Apart from memorable and creative dinners, Young Chefs with Guts aims at bringing together inspiring people: professional cooks, young talents and students from the Portuguese art of cooking, head waiters from the top national and foreigner restaurants as well as local producers, partners and premium brands who support Young Chefs with Guts.

The 2nd edition’s innovation was a Symposium, open to general audience from Peixe em Lisboa’s Festival. The theme was “Producers and Products”. Several speakers, expert on different areas, shared their vision, personal stories and experience. Afterwards, each guest chef was invited to participate in a showcooking that focused on Octopus.

Chefs

Carlos Fernandes

, Michelin

I am the youngest guest chef in Young Chefs with Guts. I work in Tenerife (Spain) at two Michelin stars M.B. (Martín Berasategui) restaurant. I have studied at Lisbon Higher Institute for Hotel Management and Tourism, I worked at Lapa Palace, I left to Spain and I am in the Canary Island since 2012. I was surprised with the invitation to participate in Young Chefs with Guts. I do promise extravagance, technique and risk with guts. One of my inspirations is Francisco Gomes, the pastry chef invited for the second night of this event.
Leonardo Pereira

NOMA, Michelin

Until I started studying in the hotel industry school in Santa Maria da Feira, everything I had cooked was pure joke. I was a rebel kid. I almost got kicked out of the course in the last weeks. But I was lucky because the director forgave me and I will never forget him. I am kitchen manager and product sous-chef at Noma, an incubator of culture and gastronomic ideology. In modern society, neither meat, nor fish should be the main elements. It is irrational and cruel to the planet.
Sven Wassmer

FOCUS, Michelin

Life is too short to eat shitty food – this is my motto. The first time I set foot in a kitchen I had five or six years old and my job was salad dressing. Years later, I studied to become a chef in a hotel in Basel (Switzerland), but truly who influenced me the most to walk this path was my mother and my grandmother. It’s been a year that I work at Focus restaurant and it is very good because we are on the same wavelength, me and my chef, we share mutual trust and friendship. For me cooking means celebrating good products and I can’t live without seafood or lemons. I like to cook simple and tasty recipes and eat likewise. Thinking about the smell of strawberries and carrots on my granny’s garden awakens all my senses.
Francisco Gomes

, Michelin

I have graduated in Management and I have worked in the business. However, the family legacy became a priority. It is in Confeitaria Colonial, in Barcelos, that I am in my element. The place was founded by my grandfather, Joaquim Pereira Gomes, in the 1960’s, and I have inherited from him the taste for sweets. I have attended fairs, workshops, training courses in pastry and I learnt from the best, such as Pierre Hermé, nicknamed the Picasso of pâtisserie. I was challenged to create dessert associated with the sea and I am ready to prove that I am indeed a chef with guts.
João Simões

, Michelin

I grew up in my mother and aunts’ kitchen. Smell, products, flavors, tradition and family recipes aroused in me a huge interest in experimenting and trying to pass on to others the same sense of delight I felt so many times. I started by cooking desserts, but then I discovered that salty food was my true vocation. I was chef Cordeiro’s henchman and now he is helping me opening my own restaurant. Working with him demands dedication, organization, severeness and above all love for the product, preferably from Portuguese origin. My favorite ingredients are salt, garlic, lemon and coriander. And I just love to cook and eat everything whatsoever, but if I must choose something it will be Portuguese grilled bread for sure. I have this pretty clear memory of myself as a kid eating big slices of watermelon, spitting its stones to the floor and at the end of the day I did felt the happiest boy in the world.
Alessandro Negrini

Il Luogo de Aimo e Nadia, Michelin

I was 14 when I first stepped in a kitchen. I started baking pizzas, in summer, in a restaurant nearby my house, in Sondrio (Italy). But I do remember that I was not tall enough to reach the oven… What we cook is what we would like to eat. Therefore, I prefer a light and fresh way of cooking. The main ingredient for me is passion and heart with a pinch of silliness. And my motto is that technique may prevail in cooking as long as emotion reaches the client. I wasn’t influenced by anyone at all. I started studying in this area because I foresaw possibilities of travelling more. It’s been ten years since I work with Aimo and Nadia and it is a great experience, because they are modest and educated folks, as if they were my parents. They taught me the value of Italian flavor in our recipes, by using only the best ingredients. A memory associated with food? The moment I proposed marriage to my wife in Massimo Bottura’s restaurant.
Nacho Baucells

El Celler De Can Roca, Michelin

The first thing I learnt to cook was a tiramisu. I started working in a kitchen at the age of 18 and what I enjoyed doing the most was pastry. A few years afterwards, I changed my opinion. I do believe that we never stop learning. Nowadays I’m learning by working together with Roca brothers, but I’m grateful to every chef I have worked with, because I learnt with each one of them. I am very lucky to be part of Cellar de Can Roca team. We are a big family. It is indeed a privileged place to put into practice the most advanced techniques. My idea of cooking is quite traditional. But I also take the opportunity to travel and get acquainted with different gastronomic cultures. If I had to pick just one ingredient, I would go for prawns. A great prawn! I like to cook for my family and friends and I admit that I can’t resist an ice cream. My mother and my grandmother are my main references. Today I still cook with them.