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Grant Achatz
Gastón Acurio
Albert Adrià
Ferran Adrià
Iñaki Aizpitarte
Raúl Aleixandre
José Andrés
Hilario Arbelaitz
Sergi Arola
Elena Arzak
Juan Mari Arzak
Corrado Assenza
Alex Atala
Jason Atherton
Eneko Atxa
José Avillez
Martin Aw Yong
Sergio Azagra
Gérard Bannwarth
Dan Barber
Pascal Barbot
Darío Barrio
Aitor Basabe
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Bo Bech
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Mark Best
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Paul Bocuse
Carl Borg
Carmelo Bosque
Toni Botella
Massimo Bottura
Michel Bras
Sebastien Bras
Jordi Butrón
Xosé Cannas
Homaro Cantu
David Chang
Carmelo Chiaramonte
Alberto Chicote
Carlos Cidón
Judit Comes
Igles Corelli
Angelo Corvitto
Carlo Cracco
Paul Cunnigham
Musa Dagdeviren
Mathias Dahlgren
Rodrigo de la Calle
Miguel Ángel de la Cruz
Manuel de la Osa
Javier de las Muelas
Carlos de Pablo
Josh DeChellis
Fernando del Cerro
Susi Díaz
Bricio Domínguez
Zhenxiang Dong
Alain Ducasse
Wylie Dufresne
Aitor Elízegui
Antoni Escribà
Christian Escribà
Gennaro Esposito
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Sergi Fernández
Stefano Fontanesi
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Josean Martínez Alija
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Mª Carmen Vélez
Marc Veyrat
Jordi Vilà
Tetsuya Wakuda
Gang Wang
Alice Waters
Heinz Winkler
Mikel Zeberio
In the blend of contemporary cuisine, Mauritius is a strategic stronghold, the gastronomic capital of the Indian Ocean. It is an island or volcanic origin, to the east of Madagascar, with an economy that depends on sugar cane, the textile sector and tourism.
We are referring to a privileged corner of the tropics, with coasts protected by giant coral reefs and the home of some of the best hotels in the world. Since 1510, when the first Portuguese settlers arrived Mauritius has been home to the Dutch, French and English, who were the last to govern until the island state proclaimed its independence on March 12, 1968. The French brought African slaves with them, and the English, when slavery was abolished, brought Indians, Chinese and Malagasy natives as cheap hand labour for the plantations. It is not surprising that its population today, consisting of around a million inhabitants, is a veritable microcosm of ethnic groups and cultures where Asia, Africa and Europe have merged.
This cross-breeding has led to a plural and cosmopolitan cuisine involving exuberant aromas, flavours and colours, Asian vegetables, exotic spices, tropical fruit and African tubers which are unknown in Europe; and, of course, fish and seafood from the Indian Ocean, including shrimp, octopus, crabs, oysters, swordfish and enormous tunas.
Amazing as it may seen, Mauritius offers a cuisine with a Mediterranean soul, pleasantly simple and nutritive. Its dishes reveal touches of French techniques, the family style typical of Italian cuisine and the aromas of Indian and Thai dishes. There are evident details of African rusticity, together with the tropical exuberance provided by pineapples, guavas, tamarinds, mangos, pomegranates, bergamots, coconuts and palm hearts.
A stroll around the fascinating street market in Port Louis, the island's capital, with its arts and crafts stalls and food sellers, is enough to discover all its gastronomic delights. Bunches of coriander, "lemon grass" (citronelle), mint, basil, thyme, leeks, fennel and parsley, alternate with multi-coloured baskets of chilli peppers. Alongside them, mountains of tubers such as cassavas, Chinese potatoes, yuccas, chayotes and sweet potatoes, next to piles of strange vegetables, from cabbage hearts to unrecognisable varieties of Asian cabbage.
To discover the cuisine of Mauritius, travellers have to visit the large riverside hotels staffed by native and European, largely Italian and French, chefs preparing avant-garde dishes based on what is locally available and local recipes. One of them is Stefano Fontanesi, a splendid, illustrated and sensitive Italian chef who arrived on the island in 1966 and was an immediate success in an Italian restaurant in "The Paradis", a luxury five-star hotel with 380 rooms and four private villas, where he also prepared native food and supervised the beach buffets.
Fontanesi arrived in Mauritius with a solid curriculum of restaurants in Italy, specifically in Tuscany, such as "La Grotta del Fantino" (Siena) where he started his career in 1990, and the Hotel Villa Arceno (Chianti) where he worked from 1991 to 1992. His travelling spirit would later take him to Dubai, hired by the managers of the "Hotel Forte Grand Jumeira Beach" (now the Royal Meridian), where he arrived just six weeks after his opened to take charge of the "Ponte Vecchio" restaurant, an establishment to seat 70, serving lunch and dinner every day of the week and where he ended up preparing 25,000 meals during his first year.
After settling on Mauritius, Fontanesi was chosen to form part of the select team which has, since the year 2000, been establishing the culinary guidelines for a new hotel, the "Dinarobin", which opened in June, 2001; a privileged establishment right on the beach, with 172 suites and a magnificent spa for exclusive guests.
The famous Dinarobin Hotel, where he still works, has three catering establishments, including beach buffets and a la carte restaurants. It is here where Fontanesi has consolidated his multiethnic style, the result of a merger of the native and a Mediterranean cuisine, with lightweight and simple recipes using local products, a veritable gift for the imagination. Seated at the tables of the Dinarobin Hotel, those seeking new experiences will be surprised by Fontanesi's proposals; an Asian cold soup in which the aroma of the tomato purée is of sesame oil, ginger and coriander leaves, or sword fish on a bed of lemon grass leaves with a tamarind vinaigrette.
Unexpected recipes, all of them imaginative, simple and highly original from an avant-garde European perspective.
By José Carlos Capel
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