Ana Roš says in her book that her cuisine comes from three elements: the territory, the season and the personality of the chef (the equivalent to #terroir, #now and #you, in the 33 keywords of my book “We, Chefs”).
It uses “super-local ingredients”, the biggest distance you travel with the menu is 30 km, which is the distance to the sea (although the techniques to elaborate them can be global). It is “super seasonal”, whatever is served is in the season at this moment. But this year’s menu is “mainly about Ana. Herself”. But who is Ana?
In her own words, “a dreamer, a traveller, someone who has at this moment a team of people coming from about 25 different nationalities, who eat together, sleep together, work together.” With whom she has spent a lot of time thinking and discussing. What can be another approach to the territory?
One which is not very abundant in expensive ingredients (five of the dishes use potato as a key ingredient).
But Ana is more than that. A self-taught chef, she is unconventional, intrepid, and with the strength to start again, again and again.
I welcome the idea that her menu “is full of questions” for which she claims not to have all the answers. It is, after all, a sane thing to admit we cannot have all the answers all of the time. The result is a menu that is “curious, fun and confusing”, she says, which to me means it is an open door to let our imagination wander, relax, let it flow and just have a good time.
Next pic
A potato baked in August hay crust, cultured butter with locate and horseradish