Opinion – Marcelo Katsuki: Discover the new gastronomic experience at A Casa do Porco

There is grace and delicacy in the new tasting menu at A Casa do Porco, the best restaurant in Brazil – according to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. There are also intense flavors, playful moments, assertiveness and nostalgia. The banquet “From the Roça to the Winter Center” is inspired by women and was created by chef Janaína Rueda with the support of a team made up only of women. The focus is on the ancestral roots of Brazilian agriculture and free-range pork in combinations with ingredients such as cassava in different forms: flour, starch, sago and tapioca.

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The new menu is divided into five steps: RE-Create, RE-Plant, RE-Gather, RE-Build and Sweeten. It preserves some of the house classics, such as pancetta crackling and San Zé pork, and sheds light on new combinations of pork, such as the one made with cassava, in different textures. It costs R$220 (plus R$140 if paired with cocktails).

The menu opens the stage REcreate, with cured and cooked sausages produced in the house. The salami comes with a pocketknife, to be cut at the table, and is accompanied by bologna, cured guanciale and a comforting broth of roasted vegetables. The jabuticaba vermouth made by the chef accompanies the snacks with care.

Next, the REplant section brings some classics from the house served in a ceramic piece that reproduces the trunk of a tree. On each “twig”, morsels like steak tartar over sweet potato tempura and knee terrine; liver and black pudding on yam tile and pomegranate gel; milanesa of mille-feuille of codeguin with honey and Creole corn; the formidable double chin sushi with black tucupi and the pancetta crackling with guava, a classic of the house. The Preliminares drink is beautifully paired with jabuticaba gin, lemon, pomegranate vinegar syrup, honey and brut sparkling wine.

Cassava is the subject of the COLLECT stage. The root appears in different textures: with bacon and pork icing and also with tucupi ice cream. To accompany, the suggestion is the Ponto P drink, with tiquira (cassava distillate), carrot and orange syrup, lemon and smoked whiskey perfume.

Porkyaki brings Asian influences into a dish rich in umami: lardo and vegetables bathed in pork foot broth. The Geisha drink, made with sake, dry vermouth, nori and wasabi finishes off with precision.

The pork dal plin with ricotta and cabbage arrives on top of a bean puree and completes the COLLECT stage. Pairing is done with the drink A Bagaceira, which takes jabuticaba distillate, cabbage syrup, lemon and pink pepper.

The grand finale features San Zé!, which makes up the REconstruct stage. The roast pork, the house’s flagship, is accompanied by organic and seasonal side dishes produced at Sítio Rueda, in São José do Rio Pardo. It accompanies the drink “Deusa, Louca e Cachaceira”, made with cachaça da Laje, Jerez Fino, lime, honey and orange bitter.

The Sweetening stage presents a beautiful composition made with chocolate, mint, strawberry and herbs. It comes with “Pure Ecstasy”, a drink made with whiskey, chocolate liqueur made by the chef, amaro, cream and mint.

The menu ends with the coffee service: a tray of cheeses such as Piazinho, produced by Pé do Morro; the Cuesta from Pardinho Artesanal and the Azul Britânnia from Bela Fazenda, in addition to sweets such as corn bread, cocada, a unique chocolate pork pie, pumpkin jam and guava snack that accompany the Tocaya coffee from Minas Gerais.

The menu, folded in pink paper, features woodcuts by the plastic artist Mimura Rodriguez and a poem by Cora Coralina that says: “I was born in rough times. I accepted contradictions, struggles and stones as life lessons and I use them. I learned to live.” . Between learning and overcoming, one certainty: the moment is feminine at A Casa do Porco.

The House of the Pig – map here
Rua Araújo 124, República – São Paulo. Tel: 0/xx/11/3258-2578