Romanian fine dining, defined by Chef Nico Lontras

Sthis week on the podcast Digital Chronicles, at Tasty Memories, I sit for stories about food with Chef Nico Lontras.

I asked Nico Lontras what fine dining means: "Most people think that a fine dining restaurant goes into this area of very small portions. Yes, it's very true, the portions are small, but there are restaurants where you eat a lot more dishes and you go for the gastronomic experience, not necessarily to leave very full. It's about a whole story, fine dining means the story of a restaurant through several dishes to show you how much they emphasize, what ingredients they emphasize, how they present the plates and the chef's hand is visible, the quality of the service is seen and all are put in a form with a label. In a fine dining restaurant you need etiquette from how you dress to how you will be served, everything is etiquette."

"For me, Romanian fine dining is a restaurant that does not have pizza on the menu, a restaurant that relates only to the place where you are, to the Romanian tradition, only that they will be put in a much finer, more elegant light, to come with the story of the place. For me, at Casa Timiș, one of the restaurants we have is the Conacului restaurant, which tends towards this fine dining area. I go to work in the morning and the deer are still running, I have 150 hectares of vines, I have entire fields of lavender... For me, fine dining means all these elements in this restaurant, to find them. My main ingredients are just that, I mean like for me no venison, no lavender stuff, no vines on the plate, from shoots to wine, grapes that you can make sauces from, you can make gummy bears. All this, in one way or another, represents me there at Casa Timiș. The restaurant is not about Nico Lontras, it is about the place where Nico Lontras is and everything that is taking shape there at Dealu Mare."

Friday, Tasty Memories, became an independent column from the main podcast Digital Chronicles, proposes a journey through time and space, in search of the perfect taste.

"Digital Chronicles" podcast, a product Zaga Brand and of Human Made Art Association (HUMART), is supported by companies Raiffeisen Bank and Electrolux Romania. The project partners are convinced that through education, culture and easy access to technology we can become the best version of ourselves.