Right from the very start when he decided to become a chef, Alex Atala already had a feeling for what his guests want and, above all, a feeling for the right mix. This was perhaps due to having worked as a DJ in his native São Paulo before he started his gastronomical career at the school for hotel management in Namur, Belgium.
 
At the hotel management school it soon became clear to Atala, that he had an extraordinary talent for the composition of aromas. After graduating from the school and giving up his DJ career, he toured France, Belgium and Italy for five years, looking over the shoulder of three star chef, Jean-Pierre Bruneau in Ganshoren, Belgium. He returned to São Paulo in 1994.
 
Back in his home city Alex Atala soon made a name for himself in the trade, which was reflected amongst other honours in the “Discovery of the Year” award conferred by the Brazilian restaurant association, ABREDI. In 1999 Atala opened his own two restaurants. The first, Namesa, was a fast-food restaurant for the city’s young and hip public , and the second was the D.O.M. – which is regarded by many gourmets as the best restaurant in Brazil today. Atala is regularly described as the best chef in São Paulo by the magazines Gula and Veja, and the D.O.M. is frequently singled out as the top restaurant in the city.
 
The cuisine of the D.O.M. draws on both the European and Brazilian. Atala’s culinary techniques are remarkably extraordinary: airy foams, powdery vegetables, transparent gelatins , delicate hazes and colourful cubes – modernism is at home on Atala’s plates. On the other hand, the Brazilian insists on using local and thoroughly traditional products. He serves Amazonian fish such as the filhote in tucupi (a juice that is extracted from the cassava root and which finds its origins in Indian cuisine), sprinkles goose liver pate with balsamic vinegar and vanilla and combines tuna fish in black sesame crust with steamed hearts of palm from the pupunha palm tree, honey and ginger. “The Amazonian area is a universe of aromas,” Alex Atala says. “It will probably take us another 30 years to discover everything that the cuisine of this region can offer us.”
 
Europe’s leading chefs have already had their attention drawn to the Brazilian magician: at the third “Madrid Fusiòn”, the international summit of leading chefs, held in January 2005, Alex Atala was invited to present his latest creations – a great honour, given that the other speakers included distinguished colleagues such as Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak and Tetsuya Wakuda
 

Alex Atala has been a DJ in São Paulo, a backpacker on a European tour, a hotel management student in Belgium … and now he’s Brazil’s most humorous, most innovative, most laid-back and best cook. In this interview, the Ikarus guest chef for December 2006 talks about central things such as rice and beans, details like the Amazon, awards and the peculiar fascination of a team sport played in Salzburg…
 
Mr. Atala, do you know who recommended you to Roland Trettl as a guest chef at Ikarus?
 
Yes, that was Ferran Adrià.
 
How did you manage to receive this honor?
 
It’s true that we’re acquainted with each other, but honestly, I don’t know. And it really is an honor, both to be recommended by such a cook and to be selected as a guest chef here.
 
You’re the first Ikarus guest chef from South America. Brazil and South America as a whole aren’t exactly known for elaborate feats of culinary art. Why is that so?
 
Quite simply because it’s a very traditional place—with very traditional eating habits. With a strong preference for rice and beans…
 
You’re the first Brazilian to actually cook Brazilian at a gourmet restaurant—and with quite some success, at that. Is this causing a change of consciousness in your country?
 
It’s a fact that my compatriots make far too little use of the wide array of Brazilian ingredients on offer and tend to prefer imported goods. But things are improving. This kind of awareness may be slow in coming, but it is coming.
 
And how do you deal with the rice-and-beans tradition?
 
I try to improve the tradition … but you have to know one thing: we Brazilians all eat beans and rice daily—and I really mean daily. That’s the way it is, it has to be that way, and it always will be that way. My kitchen team, for example … people whose work consists of culinary creativity; you’d think they’d value variety. But it would be unthinkable to go for even a day without rice and beans. My team would be angry—and I mean really angry.
 
The Amazon region, in particular, seems to be helpful in the—cautious—expansion of your compatriots’ culinary horizons: you call the rainforest a “universe of aromas.” How might one understand this as a Central European?
 
The Amazon region takes up 50 percent of Brazil’s land area. When you fly over it, it’s a green carpet. But when you dive into it, it’s a world of micro and macro, an unbelievably abundant diversity of life. There are hundreds of varieties of fish, fruits, herbs there … it’s a nearly inexhaustible natural reservoir of inspiration for a cook. I often think, before I fall asleep, I haven’t yet used this offer of nature enough, and I once again get a thousand new ideas.
 
Before your cooking career began, you were a DJ. Can you learn anything from that for cooking? Are there similarities between the mixing of audible and the mixing of edible ingredients?
 
Yes, the feeling. When you’re playing music in a disco you have to be able to sense the atmosphere and react to it—and in the kitchen, it’s the same way: you have to combine ingredients that harmonize. And you have to sense what guests like and what they don’t.
 
You decided to try your luck in Europe when you were 18. How exactly did you land at the hotel management school in Namur, Belgium?
 
That was pure chance and happened spontaneously, like a lot of things in my life. I was traveling through Europe as a backpacker, and I needed an extension to my visa … and money. By enrolling at the school, at least the visa was a sure thing.
 
Afterwards you spent time in France, Belgium and Italy. Which European cooks were your role models back then?
 
All of them, really! France had the best cuisine, but I learned and picked up inspiration all over the place. I’m doing that while I’m here in Salzburg, as well; you always have to be open to new ideas, new ingredients, new cultures.
 
So why didn’t you stay in Europe back then? A cook of your abilities absolutely could have had a career here. Wouldn’t you have liked that?
 
Europe was great! But I’m simply too Brazilian. That’s my country, my culture, my home; I couldn’t spend a long time living anywhere else. What’s more, I’ve never really been interested in having a career for its own sake.
 
According to your biography, you hit it very big relatively soon after your returned to Brazil—first with Namesa, then with D.O.M. What was your formula for success at the time?
 
I have no idea; I’d never really banked on being successful. It just kind of happened. I don’t value recognition or awards at all. And I don’t subject myself to the pressure of evaluation—judgments and awards don’t play a role in my life. If I were to feel this sort of pressure to perform at some point in life … that would be the point at which to stop.
 
Even so, D.O.M., your restaurant in São Paulo, has been ranked among the world’s 50 best. Doesn’t that matter?
 
Yes. It’s nice and somehow unbelievable that I’ve been able to get that far with my attitude.
 
So what’s it all about for you, if not recognition in the usual sense? What’s your motive?
 
It’s about the enthusiasm for discovering new things, and about sharing this enthusiasm with my guests. I also expect from my guests a corresponding openness to new things, interest in foreign cultures.
 
…and you challenge your guests again and again. Your preparation techniques, for example, certainly do move along avant-garde, very creative lines.
 
One shouldn’t overestimate that. These new approaches are exciting and inspiring, and they turn up new possibilities. But the hardest thing about good cooking is always keeping it simple. My mentor once said: “A cook with little talent hides behind complicated recipes and preparation techniques.”
 
Does your set menu for Ikarus include a dish that is especially close to your heart?
 
I can’t single out one in particular; they’re all close to my heart.
 
No favorite?
 
Well … if you insist: rice and beans. With my being a Brazilian and all…
 
With your being a Brazilian and all, one has to ask you: are you going to find time to visit a Red Bull Salzburg match?
 
No, but I was at an ice hockey match! On the way there I thought to myself: what’s the point of this? I don’t even know the rules! But right from the beginning of the game, I was completely fascinated.