Scenes of the sea: Fall in love with Porto’s new tasting menu
After earning a Michelin star in April, rather than rest on their laurels Porto’s culinary team dug deeper into the principles that make the West Town restaurant special.
That means focusing even more on ancestral preservation techniques, cooking exclusively with live fire, and making the most of the prized ingredients they receive from Spain, Portugal and closer to home in their Midwest backyard.
"At Porto, we are trying to create something that no one else in the country is doing,” says Marcos Campos, executive chef of Porto and Bonhomme Hospitality partner. “With expectations even higher, we want guests to understand who we are and what we do with each and every dish.”
Here, we offer a behind-the-scenes look into a few of the new dishes on Porto’s fall-inspired nine-course tasting menu.
Even before the official menu starts, Marcos and Chef de Cuisine Erwin Mallet have created an amuse-bouche that goes above and beyond the typical “mouth amuser.” Tapping into the restaurant’s focus on the ocean, the chefs have created three small bites: cold-smoked turbot topped with pickled kombu seaweed; a mini potato pancake adorned with a baby sardine from a Galician conserva purveyor and seaweed mostarda; and a scallop shell filled with dashi foam. “The amuse starts with smokiness, followed by richness from the conserva and ends with a bite of the sea,” says Marcos.
To make the most of wild Atlantic cod, the Bacalhau is served two different ways. The loin is cured for two hours with rosemary, thyme and bay leaf, a process that results in a meatier texture and creates a crispier skin. The belly is then broken into pieces and mixed with a wild mushroom duxelle. (For the record, wild mushrooms top Marcos’ list of favorite fall foods.) A smoked kiri squash adds a bit of heat and a hint of orange color courtesy of espelette pepper oil. For the second dish, a stew of the cod’s jowls (kokotxas) and tripe — paired with a caldo verde-inspired espuma and crispy beluga lentils — ensures nothing goes to waste. “We are always trying to find a second life for ingredients that might otherwise get thrown away,” says Marcos.
Creating unique riffs on the classic surf-and-turf combo is a challenge Marcos and Erwin are always up for — and their Squab & Tuna course is no exception. For this earthy dish, dry-aged European squab breast and braised leg are paired with aged tuna belly and tuna jus, respectively. Unique touches include lacto-fermented grape gel, a nod to the recent Concord grape harvest in Michigan, which adds some funkiness and ancestral, wild flavors.
For Marcos and Erwin, one dish wasn’t enough to show full respect to the pristine squab and tuna they receive. The duo thus created a Morcilla course, which utilizes the tuna blood line, subbing in for the traditional pig blood, as well as fresh tuna, and squab gizzards and liver. Duck fat, onions, fall spices and squid ink, which deepens its color, are added to the mixture. A shaving of raw chestnuts adds some nuttiness. A reduced broth made with tuna bone marrow, kombu seaweed and white tamari brings in additional umami as well as provides natural salinity, another culinary signature at Porto.
“We are always asking ourselves questions,” says Marcos of the thought process when choosing ingredients. “Of course, we like truffles and foie. But what is better: an amazing anchovy or a not-so-great truffle? We want to be different. This menu took more work than others because we wanted to push ourselves for more complexity and nuance. Sometimes you have to take some risks.”
