Taste Portugal’s celebratory dinner took place at Xavier Rousset and Agnar Sverrison’s 28-50° in Mayfair’s Maddox Street. Guest chef Matteo Ferrantino from the Algarve and award-winning sommelier, Antonio Lopes, joined executive chef Ben Mellor to create a three-course menu with some stunning Portuguese ingredients.
Two wines supplied by Julia Kemper of the Dão region accompanied the appetizers: Foie gras, passio fruit, Coca cola (a meringue-like ball with passion fruit and coca cola powder); Sour cream, oyster, imperial caviar (an oyster in a spherified ball of sour cream topped with caviar); and Black truffle (a rich and intense black truffle ball in black truffle powder).
The starter consisted of melt-in-the-mouth lirio fish with crispy cauliflower, lemon cream, ginger, salt crystals and flowers and herbs. It was paired with a soft Alentejan white, Herdade da Malhadinha Nova.
The main dish was Caldeirada of Black Cod, flaky fish with potato cubes, served with rustic bread and the 2013 Gilda, Tiago Teles from Bairrada, a light and elegant combination of three grapes.
The dessert was a fusion of raspberries and lychees foam and sponge textures and seaweed shapes of chocolate in red and white with a hint of basil. This was accompanied by a honey-flavoured 2012 Late Harvest, Herdade do Esporão, also from the Alentejo.
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