At acquafarina's new Chef's Lab, experimentation is on the menu
Jefferson Alvarez dedicates one night a week at the Michelin-recommended Vancouver restaurant to new flavours and techniques
acquafarina, black fermented fig and foie gras on fig leaf. Photo via acquafarina
CARACAS-BORN VANCOUVER chef Jefferson Alvarez thrives on experimentation. This is the culinary artist who once created 300 unconventional dishes in 30 days while working at the now-defunct Secret Location. He went on launch Test Kitchen Tuesday at Cacao, the progressive Latin restaurant at which he spent three years. Now, he’s bringing that same drive to discover to acquafarina.
The newly appointed culinary director of the Michelin-recommended restaurant has just launched Chef’s Lab, a weekly experimental menu focusing on modernist Italian dishes with a Latin flair. There’s no limit to what local diners might find in front of them.
Take black onion. A 30-day fermentation process yields changes in flavour and texture so that the vegetable winds up tasting like an apple, floral and pleasant. Alvarez serves it with pistachios and freshly shaved salty ricotta salata (which is derived from pressed, salted, and dry fresh ricotta).
Cannolo is stuffed with a mousse of mortadella; fermented-leek crème fraîche and caviar top off a meringue of oyster, saffron, and yuzu; and carne cruda consists of beef preserved in Syrah with truffle egg yolk.
Then there is one of Alvarez’s favourite desserts: it looks and tastes just like crème caramel, but rather than whisk together sugar, vanilla, milk, and egg, he uses foie gras, adorning the creamy, sweet flan with fermented strawberry.
For even more of a sense of what could show up on forthcoming Chef’s Lab menus, consider some of the foods Alvarez has concocted in the past: “moldy apple” (a cooked Granny Smith apple with fuzzy fermented tempeh); bone marrow mousse on charcoal brioche; edible mussels shells; cauliflower panna cotta; and “blue cheese” (slightly moldy) pear.
At acquafarina’s Tuesday-evening series, diners not only get to experience new tastes and techniques; they’re also encouraged to provide feedback to help determine whether the creations make it onto the downtown restaurant’s regular a la carte menu.
Jefferson Alvarez.
Chef’s Lab is where Alvarez, a kind of culinary mad scientist, is in his element.
“If it’s not fun and you keep doing the same thing over and over, you get bored,” Alvarez tells Stir. “I like to push the envelope….I see people open up to something new, and that’s what makes it for me. That’s what food is all about. It’s a learning experience.
“Staff get to see what we’re able to do, and guests get to help develop a future menu,” he says. “It’s meant for foodies. Vancouver is a foodie scene, and they’re always looking for something exciting.”
That’s not to say the six-course menu will appeal to everyone; it won’t, which is why the event only takes place once a week, and seats are limited each time. Prepaid reservations, $95 per person, can be made for parties of two to six people. (During his time at Cacao, Alvarez was the first restaurateur and chef in the city to request a booking fee for reservations, which has become more common in the industry.)
Oli Bureau, acquafarina's director of operations, can make recommendations for wine pairings from the restaurant’s 5,000-bottle cellar. Maybe, for instance, it’s a dense Domaine des Sabines Lalande-de-Pomerol 2014, a blend of 80 percent Merlot and 20 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, with morcilla, blood-and-risotto sausage with truffle and crispy shallots.
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