Blitz interview with Chef Nico Lontras, Casa TIMIȘ

Taste. Nature. Color. Terroir. Design. Balance. Polysensorial. Grapes. Trips. Challenges. Art. Keywords used when talking to Nico Lontras, Timiș Mansion restaurant Chef.

What are the qualities of a Chef? Top 3.
N.L.: Taste, creativity, and balance.
Which one is the most important? Creativity?
N.L.: Creativity is not enough. Taste is the ultimate quality, but the key is to adjust it according to the multitude of customers. But the most important thing is definitely balance.
You mean the balance of flavours?
N.L.: Yes, but also the emotional one. You always have to understand your team and support it when necessary.
You travelled for two years through Romania, for tourism and gastronomic research. Is this reflected in the dishes you cook?
N.L.: Yes. Here at Casa Timiș we have events that are part of a real gastronomic map of Romania.
The Romanian dish you are most proud of.
N.L.: ”Sarmale” à la Casa Timiș.
What makes them stand out?
N.L.: We prepare them in Fetească Neagră leaves from the Mansion’s grapevines, with beef in goulash sauce, a fusion between dishes from Wallachia and Transylvania. ”Sarmale” is a dish and doesn’t have an exact recipe, it’s a true recipe book.
And for dessert?
N.L.: Vine on a plate – a dessert one hundred percent from our vineyard, a wine sorbet with grapes confit in honey and hazelnut pralines.
Slow food or…?
N.L.: Slow cooking, at 60-80 degrees, so that the nutrients are not lost, and we can preserve all the flavours.
No more four-hour boiled soups?
N.L.: No more of that! At the Mansion we suggest, for example, a delicious crayfish soup or an oyster mushroom soup (which is a replacement for beef tripe), we have destructured it and made the oyster mushroom crispy, with the garlic sauce beside it.
Where do your creative ideas come from?
N.L.: I research daily, I search, I study, I experiment, there is no other way. But ideas need some work, you have to stay up to date on a daily basis, to see what’s trending in the market.
The next menu?
N.L.: We are already working on it. Each chef has to bring their own contribution and suggest a dish. The important thing is that everyone is motivated and takes part. We take him with us, and we improve his skills. We talk things over and find the right option. A single dish could have the signature of three or four chefs: one prepares the sauce, another the garnish, another one prepares the meat, another one takes care of the plating…
What were the biggest challenges of your career?
N.L.: The first one, in Norway, in the culinary town of Sandefjord, I took over a restaurant that was struggling with several issues. And was surrounded by four restaurants that had won the Bocuse d’Or award … I managed to bring the business to the level of the other restaurants.
The second challenge was to return to Romania, trying to adapt to the Romanian taste.
The third challenge is Casa Timiș, with everything going on here everyday, with different cuisines, because we only talked about the Romanian cuisine, but here we also have a Mediterranean cuisine, with the increased volume of customers and a large team of chefs. It’s a nice daily challenge!
Top 3 Celebrity Chefs.
Joël Robuchon, Heston Blumenthal, René Redzepi.
Thank you very much, Chef Nico Lontras!