Hervé Courtot

Chef Herve Courtot, the man behind the Tapasake concept, arrived in Montenegro this June for a special two-day chef’s table experience, in Tapasake One&only, Portonovi.

Tapasake, although it started as a concept that is leaning on the Japanese cuisine and Japanese ingredients, it is moving now more towards the South American flavours, more liberate use of spices, complementing the lifestyle that we have in Tapasake restaurants, with the mandatory poolside and the restaurant area.

Chef Herve is the corporate Chef at Nobu Hospitality in charge of Nobu hotels London, Marbella, Ibiza, Barcelona, Warsaw & Riyadh and Nobu restaurants Monaco, Budapest, Milan, Moscow Dubai, Doha, Cape Town & Kuala Lumpur.

In a catch up with Damir Moškov, guest writer for The Collection, he tells us about his view of Montenegro, the scenery, opportunities, food and ingredients and some of his favourites. Why we should have more pork on our menus (yes, local pork!), why we should cherish the fact that we have limited quantities and opportunity to go local and seasonal, for the most delicious dishes in our restaurants.

Finally, chef Herve invites us to his ‘home’ and gives us the run-down of his chefs table concept and menu the customers were fortunate to try in Tapasake One&only Portonovi.

Would you be so kind to introduce yourself to our audience first?

I’m French. I’m working in Japanese fusion concept restaurants for 25 years, and I’m a consultant for Tapasake concept for One&only. We have a few locations across the globe such as Maldives, Mauritius, Montenegro, soon in Dubai.

For the sake of clarification, can you explain more about Tapasake concept?

Tapasake, although it started as a concept that is leaning on the Japanese cuisine and Japanese ingredients, it is moving now more towards the South American flavours, more liberate use of spices, complementing the lifestyle that we have in Tapasake restaurants, with the mandatory poolside and the restaurant area.

Tapasake complements both lifestyles, serving tapas style food beside the pool and more elaborate dishes in the restaurant area. The menus are connected and work great one with another, with costumers being able to have a sample of almost everything in bite size pieces by the pool and can decide to stay for dinner or book a lunch another day, for a full on Tasasake experience.

What makes Tapasake different from other Japanese / Nikkei / Asian fusion restaurants that are growing in popularity in this region now?

Tapasake is a lifestyle, an all-day concept. It speaks to a wider audience and delivers something truly remarkable to its customers.

Another difference in our concept is that most of our dishes are sharing plates. Food doesn’t need to come out all at once, like in fine dining restaurants, but in a more casual way, as it gets out of the kitchen. This helps us to be more relaxed in the back, in the kitchen. Also, is gives us more time to work on the preparation of the dishes, elevate the dishes and ultimately, give more attention to the dishes and serve better food to our customers.

Can you tell us about your experience in Montenegro?

I have been here a few times already and you can say I know my way around. I love Montenegro. I just hope you don’t overpopulate and over build here, like it happened in south of Europe, in such famous destinations like Italy, Spain, France.

It is amazing when the sun goes down – the different colours, sea and mountains, spectacularly beautiful and different each day.

And the food is fantastic. So fresh and high quality. You get a lot of local fish, although you can’t choose what you get, the good thing is you get seasonal fish, seasonal ingredients. In Tapasake we love that. We love working with local product. Obviously, we use some imported ingredients too, but as much as we can, we are using local. Experiences like chefs table, that we held in Tapasake over two nights, serve as a great platform to use mostly local ingredients and bring something new to the table.

For the chef it’s easy to use standardized ingredients, but more and more we need to shift to using more local ingredients and changing the menu, even if that means that we educate our customers and get them on board to experience this great practice.

Chefs table menu differs from your regular offer - what is so special about this Montenegrin menu we had here?

The tomato dish that we had, for instance, a completely vegetarian dish, celebrated local tomato and surprised both local and international customers.

We offered red mullet, that was provided by local fishermen, was another stat of the menu. As a French chef, I love red mullet, it is my favourite fish.

What do you consider an interesting Montenegrin ingredient that we are underusing?

I would suggest Montenegrin pork. A local raised pork is one of the treasures of Montenegro and there should be more pork on restaurant menus. I’m sure locals are used to eating pork at home and perhaps restaurants think it’s not fashionable to have it on the menu, but it can be a great dish. And also, tourists are not as used to pork, so it’s a great alternative to fish dishes that are always on the menu.

We actually used local pork to create a very simple and refined dish, with pork loin. We cleaned it, seasoned with salt, sugar and black peppercorn for 24 hours. Then we slow cook it for 12-18 hours, rest, cut and grill. Without any sauce, served grilled, simple as that. Also, we as restaurants can help in evolving Montenegrin ingredients. Maybe we can talk to the growers when we need some ingredients, and they will be willing to help us and actually started growing something new for us. I did a similar initiative in Turkey a few years ago and this producer ended up expanding his offer and growing thanks to our mutual initiative.

How do you see Montenegrin gastronomy evolving?

I think there is a huge potential of growing. This will happen when more Montenegrin chefs go abroad and around the world to learn and experience different cuisines. Then when they come back, they will want to make difference in their own country, and then you will see the real changes. It’s good to go out of your country, to learn new techniques, ingredients, etc. Then, you come back, and you realize, wow, our local ingredients are much more flavourful than what I had in other countries I worked. And then magic happens.

CHEFS TABLE EXPERIENCE How would you describe chefs table experience?

In short, it is like I’m inviting people to come to your home. This is a kind of new concept and people are catching onto the concept very quickly. Also, cooking is becoming a trend and people are interested to see and know how things are made. They like to know where the ingredients are coming from.

This concept gives us a chance to get more familiar with the customer. We get to speak with everyone, ask them what they like, how they like the food, etc.

Also, you can present your concept and even test some dishes that can end up on your menu. It is an opportunity to offer something different to your regular customers too. This is wonderful because they become your most sincere ambassadors. The ideal number for chefs table guests is around 12, so you really get an interaction with everyone.