When I found out that Portugal's only two-Michelin-starred chef was doing a star turn at the Northcote Manor Festival of Food and Wine earlier this year, I hotfooted it to Lancashire before you could say "bacalhao". (That's the Iberian country's national dish, by the way - salt cod to you and me).
Sad to say, though, there wasn't a whiff of salt cod on the menu. But then, it was still winter at the time and more conducive to heartier fare. And Dieter Koschina himself isn't actually Portuguese. True, he has lived and worked in Portugal for 15 years, but he is all Austrian, hailing from Dornbirn, near the Swiss border at the eastern end of the Bodensee. And there's no doubt about it, the man can cook.
Koschina, 42, is the head chef at Vila Joya, an exclusive 17-bedroom hotel in Portugal's Algarve, with stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean. He gained the hotel a Michelin star for its 45-seat restaurant in 1996, cementing its gourmet reputation with the award of a second star in 1999.
His food is grounded in classical techniques, although he's not averse to using the odd Eastern spice and is, as he told me in our brief chat, currently looking at how he can adapt the robust Portuguese cuisine into a more refined and complex dining experience.
"The Portuguese fine-dining scene is driven by tourists," he explains, "and the people tend to eat more at home because the level of pricing is really crazy - they can't afford to eat out." Vila Joya draws many of its guests from Germany - diners who are used to a sophisticated, classically inspired fine-dining scene - which is why Koschina is such a good fit in terms of food style.
The menu that Koschina cooked at Northcote was generously portioned and complex, both in execution and flavour layering. However, he cooks in a lighter vein in the Portuguese summer. "The cold weather means that you need something stronger in the stomach," he says. "In the summertime I use much more oil and vinegar, for example."
His Northcote menu showed a fondness for incorporating smoked flavours. A black pudding used in a raviolo, for instance, was smoked, and its accompanying slice of crisped, pan-fried foie gras had also been smoked for about two minutes over oak chippings. (He used the smoked foie gras among his pre-dinner canaps, too, which set up a resonance for the later dish.) The double hit of smokiness in the raviolo dish meant it wasn't just a token trick, it created a depth of flavour, underscoring and drawing together the component tastes.
Game also played its part in the meal, both among the canaps (variations on the themes of duck and quail), and in the central dish of venison, which was served with lentils, bacon-tinged cabbage, an orange-infused crpe of celery, and a port wine jus which had been blitzed with crme frache and foie gras. This was definitely a dish for hunters after a day on the moors, if a little on the rich side in a five-course meal.
More successful in the overall balance of the meal were the two fish dishes, particularly the sweet and succulent lobster; while a white balsamic beurre blanc accompanying the sea bass was a highlight.
Of course, it's a difficult thing to give an adequate reflection of your cooking style at a food festival when it's held in a season that is diametrically opposed to the one in which you cook for most of the year (Vila Joya closes between November and February). And it's a brave move to expose yourself to a food culture different from your own. So why did Koschina do it?
"Every time you do something like this," he says, "you see the styling and creative food of other chefs. You talk to them, to the crews in the kitchen. You always learn."
Vila Joya, Albufeira, Portugal. Tel: 00 351 289 591 795. Website: www.vilajoya.com
Dieter Koschina’s Northcote menu
Canapés
- Composition of duck and quail with kumquats
- Sautéd smoked duck foie gras
- Breast of quail, purée of red apple, cinnamon
- Confit of kumquats, mousse of duck foie gras, port wine jelly
- Praline of quail leg stuffed with herbs on tartare of tuna, chorizo chips
Menu gourmand
- Fillet of sea bass on braised tomato, onion purée and olives, Bairrada Reserva, Casa de Saima 1996
- Ravioli of black pudding with sautéd goose liver, Quinta do Bom-Retiro, 20-Year-Old Tawny
- Medallion of Atlantic lobster, potato brandade, trompettes, Alvarinho Soalheiro, Vinho Verde, Antonio Esteves Ferreira 2000
- Saddle of venison with port and wine sauce, Cartuxa de Evora Reserva, Fundaçïo Eugènio de Almeida 1999
- Crispy chocolate with raspberries and Champagne ice-cream, Opitz One, Vin de Paille, Willi Opitz 2000
Wines chosen by Craig Bancroft, co-owner of Northcote Manor
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Recipes
Poached sea bass on a braised tomato and onion purée with white balsamico sauce and dried olives >>
Raspberry with crispy chocolate and champagne ice >>