Chef Pedro Mendes launches new book “algo com Algas”
“algo com Algas” is the new book by Chef Pedro Mendes, which is now on the market. The idea for this project comes, he confesses, from 2012, but it would be the period of confinement to give shape to it. “The confinement put everything in a different perspective and I wanted to take advantage of a moment in a positive sense that was not and there was time and opportunity to move forward,” he says.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he diversity of algae on the Portuguese coast, the nutritional composition of each of these profuse organisms in an aquatic environment and the possibility of integrating the daily food of Portuguese homes were the reasons that led Chef Pedro Mendes to deepen the theme and create recipes based on algae. From the exhaustive study of algae, step by step idealizing each ingredient that combined with certain algae, the 40 recipes that form part of the book that now reaches our hands were born. Pedro Mendes “sums it up” like “algo com Algas”: “seaweed in human food is a way to democratize and encourage the use of this rich ingredient through simple recipes, many of which are known, since they are removed from our recipe!”
The project was born out of a partnership with João Pedro Rato (Mutante), one of the main drivers of the project, and has several partners who bet on this new adventure by Pedro Mendes, such as Alga Plus, André Teodoro, Arroz Bom Sucesso, Câmara Municipal de Lisbon, Capri, Lisbon Region Wine Commission, Lugrade Bacalhau, Luís Ribeiro, Miguel Santana, Cabana do Pescador Restaurant, Ria Fresh, Peixaria Fish Route, Salmarim, Vista Alegre and Wisdom Valley.
Over 100 pages, in a bilingual edition, the reader will also be able to appreciate the harmonization of wines combined with each of the recipes in a fundamental support by the Wines of Lisbon. The importance of the proximity of the sea to the vineyards and the Atlantic influence gives the combination perfect among the seaweed, the creativity of Pedro Mendes, and, obviously, the wines selected in the harmonizations under the responsibility of Patrícia Serrado, João Pedro Rato and the chef himself.
The preface for “algo com Algas” is, moreover, signed by one of the most respected gastronomic critics in our country, Fernando Melo (Evasões), and the translation to the English version is the responsibility of journalist Ann Abel (Forbes).
