Inspiration, this is one of the most important word in every chef's dictionary. Inspiration in the creation of meals, the inspiration coordination of the ingredients and taste, the inspiration for arranging dishes on the plate, all these are the things that every chef is paying special attention to. Bruno Cesar Lerzundi Vagner, the chef of the Bulldog Restaurant, is one of those chefs. He is paying special attention and takes inspiration from the three ingredients. This is something he has learned while studying at the culinary academy in Lima, Peru's capital, and this is what he has kept to this day. Indeed, Bruno feels that a meal consisting of three ingredients is the base of work among many excellent chefs in Croatia.
Chevice i escabeche
For him, it does not matter where these three ingredients are found - in a refrigerator, in a marketplace or in a shop. While studying, his favorite three ingredients meal was ceviche - the national pride of Peru. Chef Bruno was preparing chevies in various combinations, using fish, shellfish, octopus, tuna, and salmon. During studying, he left his country, and he continued to work in Canada as part of a student exchange program, where he was mostly using sushi. After ceviche, chef Bruno specializes in preparing escabeche. Escabeche is a dish popular in Latin America, where every country prepares it in different ways, as well as in Mediterranean countries. Chef Bruno compares the escabeche with saur, but while the saur is made of raw fish, escabeche is made of fried fish, which is prepared with chili, Aji Amarillo, onion, garlic, Latin American achiote, black olives, cooked eggs, wine, and vinegar. In addition to serving a Causa, Latin American appetizer based on potatoes, the chef Bruno uses either plain potatoes or batata.
Pag's lamb gives the best ingredients
The idea of inspiration based on three ingredients and spices, according to Bruno's wishes was created when he moved to Europe - Croatia. For him, the ingredients remain the same, only the techniques change. As an example of such culinary thinking, chef Bruno quotes the Šibenik restaurant "Pelegrini", that is also most frequently using three groceries with marvelous flavors along with the cooking techniques of their chef.
The ideal three Croatian ingredients for chef Bruna come from one animal, and this animal is a Pag's lamb from which meat, bones and Pag curd are obtained. The lamb will be used for confit, the bones will be the basis for demi-glace sauce, while the Pag cheese will be used in combination with a gratinated potato. With all this, the usual spices will be used. For him, the most important thing is that the ingredients are well-known because he can use them in various dishes afterward. Then, lamb, for example, can be used in tartar, but also as a burger. After selecting the foods, the preparation technique creates a special and quality dish.
Peruvian dishes with Croatian touch
An ingredient, which is extremely important, must be local. Chef Bruno has experienced a variety of dishes based on local ingredients, so he ate the meat of the alligator on the grill, as well as the black stew of the monkey meat that he ate in a village in the jungle located in the Peruvian province of Satipo. What Chef Bruno has been inspired by for some time is preparing Peruvian dishes with Croatian food. He had already done this before in the restaurant of the Zadar hotel Bastion, where he prepared ceviche and salted fish with cuttlefish ink. What makes his job easier is spices. He says that he found the required spices in a Peking duck shop in Zagreb; therefore a Peruvian dishes feast in the Croatian version can begin!