Members of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs gathered on Valentine’s Day, February 14, for a special dinner at Alma do Algarve restaurant in Quarteira.
This newly-opened restaurant is owned by our Russian confrère Chef Aleksandr Mishin, who won the Young Chefs Rôtisseurs competition in Russia several years ago before settling in Portugal.
The restaurant specialises in the best of traditional Algarvian dishes, as the name suggests, but Aleksandr accepted our challenge to create a “one-off” Russian Valentine’s dinner just for the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs – and he did this superbly!
The evening began with a glass or two of sparkling wine, after which the five-course dinner was served. This started with Kolobok (two small delicate Berliner topped with smoked sturgeon and caviar), followed by Okroshka (a subtle soup of fresh herbs and king-crab from Murmansk), a traditional Borscht (a beetroot potage served with homemade salo bacon and pickles, rye bread and a shot of vodka), a main dish of silky beef tongue with a morel demi-glace and a slice of foie-gras, and to finish, an amazing porcini ice-cream with sweet-salted cream and marinated apple.
All this came with a selection of Portuguese wines: Alvarinho from Quinta d’Amares, a white Douro from Sequeira, a red Douro “R de Romaneira”, and a nice Vallado Tawny Port to close this very interesting and delicious feast.
Our thanks go to our Chancelier Marie-Anne Ferran and to Chef Maître Rôtisseur Aleksandr Mishin for organising this dinner.
The Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, as an International Association of Gastronomy established in over 75 countries, always welcomes new enthusiastic members, amateurs and professional, who share the same values of quality, fine dining, conviviality, the encouragement of the culinary arts and the pleasures of the table.
If you would like to know more about the Chaîne, don’t hesitate to contact us by email: ma@monchique.com or visit www.chainedesrotisseurs.com
By Dr. Jean Ferran – Commandeur, Pair de la Chaîne
