CURA Off The Record - episode 2 | Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon

Thank you so much for coming. So, this is almost a round table of the Masons. The idea here is we almost share a little bit of our life experiences, what we like most. And, no, re-approaching the Cure and, no, re-approaching these structures, serves a little bit to bring people back together in a more personal way. Perhaps, until now, there wasn't so much. Our daily routine is so routine that it's like this, send the wines that are for São Miguel here to taste, Send me the products to try and when, often, the wine is important to go to places and then it will be shoeed. I'm going to try the wine early, we can't have finished drinking the coffee and I want to know if the wine is fit to see my customers. Our palace is completely different from anyone else's and we just finish lunch or dinner and, mainly, it happens a lot as a service. At 5:30 in the afternoon we'll prepare dinner, at 6:00 we'll finish the soup and everything else that's to be served from 7:00. The palace is not the same, he's not tired, he's not nervous, he's not so sensitive and the same thing happens, I'm sure, to you, David. As the environment, each person has a very different perception, both of alcohol and of the other acids that are being talked about. We want to be very objective about these things and they are, but objective things can also have an affective side and affects don't show objectivity in my point of view. I spent most of my childhood summers at the house of Sílvia, so I have very vivid memories still and all the wine that was appearing in the life of Sílvia was contaminating me and therefore I think they are relationships that are moving forward. To know the project, to go to the local area, to see how it is done, to meet the people and to feel that it is still beginning, but has legs to grow and develop and to be a project that in ten years' time will be there. I, for example, think that there is no wine in the world that is entirely gastronomic. you have to be careful not to overdo it. I think people are increasingly liking this and I think that the role of a sommelier is fundamental. I mean, it's not just opening the bottle and that's my choice and that's it, but also trying to impose what the customer's expectations are, without obviously invalidating the experience or the concept that you bring to the restaurant. Trying to figure out what a person wants, or what a person likes. This is when people don't normally know how to talk about wine. It's challenging, but it's very fun when we finally serve the glass, we always say pingar, when we serve the glass and the customer gets a smile on his face. I'm always challenging this relationship between who cooks and who makes the pie, in fact I always eat at the table and I feel that typically chefs are very sensitive people. Of course not, because if he really tasted it, he'd realize he'd done one thing and that suddenly he'd be tasting different wines and it would be completely different. I, with the exception of some wines, for example, think that champagne is probably, or a sparkling wine, or a petnet, are wines that I find, or a mousse, or that there is a natural difference, helps me with greater ease to open out of the meal. My reading of Pedro's gastronomy is that often the ideas are there and waiting for the ingredient. when the ingredient comes up, sometimes it comes up from one week to another and it's, look, the dish will be this, bora. but then we do a job that is, while the last pieces are done, while Pedro, or Rodolfo and the whole kitchen team are finalising the dish, I accompany you to this last part and we're going to leave, to discuss ideas, to see what will be the profile that we adapt and then we try to incorporate. A dish, or wine, at a time of meal when Pedro suggests you enter. While we're talking about wines, it's just a small snack. It's a great pleasure, folks, but it's giving me great pleasure right now, here at the table, because I think people also have a lot of conversation, and conversation is also very important. It's not just affective, it's a component of pleasure and the body, which are sensations and it has everything to do with the moment we're in. We have that, in our profession, Pedro makes the dishes and the dishes are, I also won't send the wines, I'll send the wine and I'll recommend each person. And that's a lot, it's the most challenging part, but also the most motivating, is trying to figure out what it is that a person wants. The storytelling has to influence a client's decision, it has to influence a marriage. We have to be storytellers, that's true. If you experiment with your dish with five different wines, all five may be fine, but you'll get, a link will make different things. And there goes the other side, the client doesn't want to drink alcohol, he just wants a glass. Well, but stay on the whites, stay on the reds, I mean, it has to be very organic, we can't define, I think, I haven't found a way to get it done yet, I think we can't define, I'll give an example, two customers who are going to come drinking a lot of alcohol, they want a glass of wine each. And then he does, but I like it better, and a lady likes it better. I like it, it's organic. I like to show a show. Now we have to explain who the rest of the food is. - I know. I'd like to thank you for this invitation. Yes, thank you. It was a little less. And I want to thank you for helping us to be more us, more pure, more Portuguese. O pe is a bible of four, five carravos. I mean it. It took almost two hours. Now let's worry.