Meet Osso, one of the best restaurants in Latin America, which has a branch in SP

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In the last week, those who passed by the height of number 520 on Rua Bandeira Paulista, in Itaim Bibi, came across a new restaurant with no name on the facade. On the glass walls are printed only four stars and the phrase: “It is among the 50 best restaurants in Latin America”.​

Advertising on the door and word of mouth ensured that most tables were occupied for dinner on Tuesday, the 2nd, even without the name of the space still affixed.

This is where, since July 26, Osso, a restaurant run by Peruvian chef Renzo Garibaldi in the west of São Paulo, has been operating. This is the first branch of the kitchen outside Peru.

“I have a lot of history with São Paulo. I’ve been coming here for many years, I have friends, I like Brazilian culture, cuisine. It was natural that the city had the first Osso branch outside Peru”, says the 37-year-old chef and butcher. .

Garibaldi and Osso have become popular names in the gastronomy world because of their dry aged meats. In this method, the meat rests in a cold chamber at controlled temperature, humidity and ventilation. Over time, it loses moisture, gains a dark skin and a concentrated flavor, increasing its softness.

In the São Paulo version of the house, the dimly lit lounge features a bar and a glass-walled kitchen, where almost everything is cooked over coals, in addition to barbecues and an extensive wine cellar. The wine list is a finger-thick notebook with 390 labels from different countries.

Most of the menu follows the options of the matrix, in Peru, with cuts of pork, goats and, mainly, beef. The maturation stages start from 30 days. It is possible to taste, for example, the marrow risotto, one of the restaurant’s main recipes, which is a creamy rice prepared with a marrow sauce, mushroom, bacon and pieces of pancetta. The dish works as a side dish and costs R$ 38.

Lomo saltado, a classic from the Andean country, costs R$105. For starters, there were suggestions such as tartar (R$60), made with angus meat and egg yolk, and carpaccio (R$75), served with puree. of avocado, salsa and a ceviche-flavored mayonnaise. Another star is the Osso Mess dessert (R$34 for a small one), meringue based on vanilla ice cream, strawberry pieces, whipped cream, bacon caramel and a piece of meat on top.

But the chef made some adaptations for the Brazilian palate and included, for example, hearts of palm, bacon farofa and roasted onions, in addition to picanha. “These are things that Brazilians relate to meat.”

Among the cuts, there is chorizo ​​(R$120), ancho (R$140), roasted strip (R$150) and others. You can choose the drying time: 100 grams of meat aged for 30 days costs R$ 30; for 60 days, they cost R$40, while the premium beef costs R$48.

Long before the current expansion plans, Osso was a butcher shop. Appeared in 2013, it had a table in the back to make the cuts and a grill. Garibaldi then started to invite friends to eat meat and drink beer in the space, which ended up becoming a small restaurant.

Two years later, the place debuted in the 50 Best in Latin America — the ranking stamped on the facade of the address in Itaim, an award that is the regional arm of The World’s 50 Best, considered the Oscar of gastronomy. At the time, it was ranked 34th. The house has remained on the list ever since, reaching ninth place in 2019 and appearing at 17th in the latest edition last year. “The judges reward experience and innovation more. Osso was from the beginning an out-of-the-box place”, says the chef.

Garibaldi says this because Peru has the lowest meat consumption and production in Latin America, and Osso opened as a butcher shop in a residential neighborhood of La Molina, 16 kilometers from the capital, Lima. “You can’t imagine the number of times they said it was going to go wrong.”

In 2017, four years after the opening, the Peruvian chef had his first experience in Brazil, when he provided consultancy and created the menu at Cór, a restaurant in Pinheiros that also highlights dry aged. Then, in 2020, he set up Osso Smash House, a snack bar with thinner smash burgers, which started out as a delivery service.

The new physical space emerged after these experiences and was set up with friends and partners Alexandre and Guilherme Mora, also from Cór. In the coming months, Garibaldi will open the restaurant’s branches in Miami and Mexico City, in addition to reopening a second location in Lima.

“I can’t say that this was always the idea, but I made the decision that I don’t just want to have a restaurant — but a brand that is the embassy of Peruvian barbecue cooking around the world.”

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