Chef Atsushi Tanaka from A.T. restaurant in Paris returns to his beloved Latin America, collaborating with Alvaro Clavijo at El Chato in Bogotá, ranked 33 World’s Best Restaurant 2023 according to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list
Both chefs offered a unique culinary experience blending excellence and authenticity
Bogotá, February 8th, 2024. Celebrated A.T. Chef Atsushi Tanaka has once again graced Latin America with his culinary talent, collaborating with El Chato restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia, for the very first time. Partnering with long-time friend and esteemed chef Alvaro Clavijo, the duo has curated an exceptional dining experience that seamlessly blends Tanaka’s craftsmanship with the vibrant and authentic flavors of Colombia.
Both chefs share the passion for exploring local produce, which is evident throughout Atsushi Tanaka’s culinary adventures in the region. His fascination with Latin American cuisine began in 2016 when he received an invitation from Máximo Bistrot in Mexico City. Since then, his annual visits have become a culinary pilgrimage, exploring local produce, collaborating with renowned chefs, and leaving an indelible mark on the gastronomic landscape. These journeys have taken him to La Docena in Mexico City and Lassai in Brazil (2017), Tegui in Argentina (2018), and MIL Centro in Morey, Peru, last year.
The friendship between Tanaka and Clavijo, cultivated since 2016, has evolved into a creative partnership. They have crossed paths in different parts of the world over the years. Alvaro Clavijo, known for his eloquence, expressed his long standing curiosity about Atsushi Tanaka’s creative use of local products, eagerly anticipating this overdue collaboration.
Indeed, each of Tanaka’s dinners outside his Parisian temple of modern craftsmanship is a result of extensive research, experimentation, and discoveries made through the local terroir visited. On each occasion, he crafts a unique and tailor-made menu exclusively for the event.
During this visit, chef Atsushi Tanaka spent two days in Bogotá, sourcing local fruits and herbs from the markets, fresh fish from the Atlantic, and vegetables from small farmers affiliated with El Chato. The result was a meticulously crafted 13-course menu, predominantly pescatarian and vegetable-forward, showcasing Tanaka’s signature sensitivity and expertise in fish preparation.
Highlights from the menu include the Bravo ceviche with ground cherry, camarillo, Para snail with tonka bean and cacao nibs, hake with pil pil and spinach, and a show-stopping grilled lobster smoked with coca leaves, served with camote and zapote.
This culinary journey was an authentic celebration of exploration, collaboration, and a homage to the rich tapestry of Colombian terroir. Tanaka’s commitment to presenting a unique and tailor-made menu for each occasion offered the guests at El Chato experience a gastronomic adventure like no other.
About Atsushi Tanaka
Brought up in Japan, trained between Spain and Scandinavia, and finally established in France, Chef Atsushi Tanaka’s cuisine is nor from one place, nor from the other. But it is precisely this international background and Japanese heritage that makes it one-of-a-kind. He is in fact a no-land’s chef.
Coming across a book by Pierre Gagnaire at a very young age fueled Tanaka’s passion for cooking and inspired him to become a chef. After some work experience in his native country and in the cities of Osaka, Ginza and Tokyo, he embarked on a globetrotting journey working with the most avant-garde chefs around the world, with stops in Spain, The Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. His career has taken him all the way from Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, to Quique Dacosta in Alicante, Pastorale, Sergio Herman, and Slius, as well as to the most renowned Scandinavian restaurants including Geranium in Copenhagen, Frantzen and Oaxen Krog in Stockholm.
Tanaka’s multicultural training and international exposure makes him a unique and non-conformist chef with its own gastronomic identity, which is influenced by French culinary techniques and his Japanese heritage, that he presents through his highly aesthetic creations.
Cultural diversity can be perceived in every detail of his proposal, merging together to write up a poem for the palate, for the eyes, and for the soul. But beyond being a chef, Atsushi Tanaka is an artist, a poet of the senses. He has freed himself from any labels to conceive his own form of culinary art, combining dynamism and endurance in equal measure.
Despite a self-limitation on the use of ingredients to maintain pureness in his dishes as he looks for a creative challenge, beauty is intrinsic in him and thus must be translated into each verse of his menu. For such, he explores three terroirs that merge together inside the walls at A.T. ‘s kitchen: arts, lyrics and crafts.
About A.T. Restaurant
In April 2014, Chef Tanaka opened his Parisian temple of modern craftsmanship and first restaurant, A.T., just a stonecast away from the bank of the Seine and the Notre Dame Cathedral, in the very vibrant Latin Quarter.
Barely a year after opening its doors, A.T. was nominated as “One of the coolest places to eat in 2015” by Forbes Magazine. In 2022 the restaurant received its first Michelin star and chef Tanaka was ranked #98 in The Best Chef Award’s list in 2023.
This hidden treasure in the heart of Paris welcomes twenty diners to enjoy an ever-changing single set menu in an intimate and elegant setting. The single set tasting menu at A.T, changes regularly based on the ingredients available in nature and in season, making every visit to Tanaka’s as unique as the first one. Each dish on the menu tells a different story, encapsulating Tanaka’s international culinary journey and his idea of being in harmony with nature and with the seasonality of ingredients.
Tanaka creations are aesthetically distinct and embody a poetic mix of different flavours, colors and textures. His single set tasting menu, composed of 13 steps, is rounded up by a diligent selection of organic and natural wines that sommelier Thibaut Simon constantly adjusts to highlight the ingredients of each dish.
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