On the ten anniversary of the pork’s house, haute cuisine is rustic and organic

It is in the interior of Sao Paulo, 250 km from his award -winning Pig, that chef Jefferson Rueda connects to the origins. In the kitchen of Sítio Rueda, in São José do Rio Pardo (SP) – where he was born – does what he wants to eat. With what the earth gives.

Standing behind a steaming copper pan over the firewood, adds generous taioba amounts and kale with chirera pork. Move from time to time, take a teco with the spoon, prove, “It’s hot!”. As soon as ready, it offers the stew to each of your guests, serving it with a shell over the beans. To finish, fresh cheese and vegetables, harvested just from the garden.

This same redneck kitchen that prevails on the site is the one that Rueda seeks to transport to Porco Doc, the restaurant’s new menu, which celebrates ten years. The doc, which in haute cuisine means “denomination of controlled origin”, used to certify the quality standard of items such as cheeses and wines, in the letter is “denomination of country origin”.

The freshness of the earth exudes throughout the menu. A chicken liver crispy gets cocoa and jataí honey, produced by the same bee that pollinizes and helps in controlling the garden at its site. The smoked pork hossomaki is wrapped with taioba leaf, harvested there. The Pork Lardo ceviche is accompanied by aloe, pequi and melon.

It even has corn hominy, which arrives at the table with raw ham, sweet corn, porcopoca (the popcorn of pork rods and black truffle. And an unexpected fish (confirmed in the lard, of course), “to bring the smell of wet land in the morning,” as the chef explains. “One of my favorite from the new menu.”

To ensure the quality that raised the restaurant in downtown São Paulo to the best list in the world, Rueda makes use of the Sisal system, which prioritizes animal welfare. The pigs are created loose at Sítio São Francisco, in São Sebastião da Grama (SP). They feed on vegetables such as carrot and beetroot, whey and crushed corn.

While commercial creations take three months to reach the weight of slaughter – between 90kg and 100kg – in the place is about nine. “It is about observing the time of the animal, nature,” explains José Luís Bertoletti, owner of the place. He points out that the only drug administered there is the dewormer. And that the transport for slaughter is done at dawn to escape the sun. “There is no point in sustainable management and stressing the animal on the way.” From its site come about 20 pigs per week to supply the pork’s house.

In addition to the European cultures (lettuce, carrots, beets), Gabriel explains that the idea is to play more and more with the original of Brazil: caruru, sister, nettle … “Let’s sell and eat caruru, which is the bush that hinders the fields? “The place, like the restaurant, is a great cycle.”

It is that the soul of the menu that celebrates the ten years of the pork’s house is exactly this: show that the haute cuisine is also made of the earth, the simple, the cultivated. “Do you see these carrots?” Asks Rueda, pointing to a crate with disform vegetables that feed their pigs. “For the beauty standard of the human being is not. 600 boxes, 200 would be discarded. We use it.”

Because eating, after all, is a cycle. In the Rueda site, it is a closed cycle.

The Pig
R. Araújo, 124, Republic, central region, tel. (11) 3258-2578. Price: R $ 320, @acasadaporcobar

The journalist traveled at the invitation of A Casa do Porco