Dayse Paparoto restaurant in SP makes exaggerated dishes and serves warm food

The fashion world often takes inspiration from Coco Chanel to criticize excesses and argue that sometimes it is more important to remove elements than to add them in the search for balance and perfection. This is a lesson that could be adapted to gastronomy to rethink Paparoto Cucina.

Almost everything in the restaurant owned by the winner of the first season of MasterChef Profissionais, Dayse Paparoto, is exaggerated to the point of losing your hand in the search for abundance.

In general, the menu that presents Italian food from the chef’s perspective is attractive, and the food even has very favorable points. But what predominates is the hyperbolic profile. The dishes are too big and have too many elements. This creates a cacophony that can make the meal messy and uninteresting. To make the experience more enjoyable, it would be good to incorporate the idea that sometimes less is more.

Among the starters, the egg yolk ravioli (R$56) demonstrates excesses very clearly. The dish, which became a trend on social media thanks to the excellent preparation of Pasta Shihoma, arrives here dipped in a truffled parmesan sauce that hides its essence. The good flavor of the yolk, ricotta and spinach filling is lost, and the ravioli just seems like generic pasta in an unnecessary truffle sauce and with a slight touch of artificial flavor. If it were served plain, with just butter and sage, it would be much better.

The same is repeated with the burrata in a crispy crust with pesto (R$ 95). The large sphere of good cheese even makes a positive impression, spilling filling when opened. But the topping is difficult to cut and adds neither flavor nor texture. Furthermore, the pesto taste disappears in the mixture that still includes leaves, grated parmesan and tomato sauce. If it were a simple burrata, or at most gratin, just with the great house sauce, it would be simpler and tastier.

The lack of restraint continues among the masses. Even though it is one of the best dishes in the house, the goat cheese sacotini (R$98) mixes cheese, nuts, sage butter, grana padano fonduta, fig and truffle honey. Its highlight is the contrast of the cheese and nut filling with the sweet fruit, eliminating so many elements.

Meat also repeats the excess formula. The grilled filetto wrapped in crispy dough (R$ 162) is presented as a reinterpretation of beef Wellington, but arrives at the table with such an immoderate presentation that it’s difficult to even know how to start eating.

A large piece of filet mignon is hidden in a thin pasta bowl filled with a dark mushroom sauce “with a touch of black truffle”. The meat was well prepared and tasty, but the sauce was one-dimensional and bland, in addition to making the entire part of the pasta it came into contact with soggy, leaving only the crispy edges.

To make matters worse, it is also accompanied by a very problematic taleggio cheese risotto. The rice grains were served dipped in a sauce that looked like an extremely salty soup – impossible to eat and without adding anything to a dish already full of components.

Among the desserts, the highlight of the menu is the tiramisu (R$59) which comes with a cotton candy tree which once again does not add to the flavor and only serves to make the dish more Instagrammable. Better to be conservative and try the excellent dulce de leche pudding with amaretto liqueur (R$39), the only moment of the meal in which all the layers of flavors and texture seemed balanced, with slices of almonds complementing the very well-made pudding.

Exaggerations in the preparation of dishes take away the shine of a kitchen that has the potential to have quality and make Paparoto a lukewarm restaurant — the temperature at which many of the dishes arrived at the table, by the way.