By Patrick Stuart patrick.stuart@open-media.net
Gusto restaurant at the Conrad Algarve hotel in Quinta do Lago was the venue for a highly unusual food and beverage pairing on Monday when three-star Michelin chef Heinz Beck was challenged to create a menu accompanied by Beluga Vodka.
Chef Beck holds three stars at his Rome Restaurant La Pergola and is the signature chef behind Gusto, where the kitchen is headed by Chef Mike Bräutigam.
Beck is a regular visitor to his Algarve outpost and flew over from Rome specially to join the Gusto team for the event – the official Portuguese launch of one of the world’s top brands of vodka, Beluga.
And so it was that Beck and the team produced a beautifully balanced menu that challenged not only the kitchen but also the palates of guests.
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Pairing vodka with refined Italian cuisine is certainly no easy task and I found that for my taste the strength of alcohol overpowered some of the dishes. But knowing that in Russia, Poland and parts of Scandinavia it is quite normal to drink vodka with food, I endeavoured to keep an open mind.
After all, it’s not every day that our palates are challenged at the hands of one of the world’s top chefs. But whilst enjoying a particularly splendid variation of Heinz Beck’s legendary fagotelli carbonara, intensely flavoured to pair with one of Beluga’s top of the range vodkas, I must admit to having found myself yearning for a nice glass of smooth Italian red!
