Back in time people ate food mainly in order to gain the strength and energy one needed, to survive and to function. This has changed over the course of time and with the evolution of civilization in a globalized and intercultural context, the function of food and drinks changed severly.
In the beginning of human history our sense of taste and smell was mainly used to detect potentially dangerous or particularly useful properties in our food. For example was the flavory of something bitter triggering warning signs for potentially dangerous foods. To this day, bitter and sour tastes are what we call “acquired tastes”, meaning these are flavors we need to “learn to enjoy”. This is best demonstrated by babies not usually liking the taste of coffee or a beautiful dry riesling 😀 At the same time sweet flavour's were singling sugar and thus energy rich levels of nutritional values. A craving for salt was triggered by a need for minerals and so on…
However, the nutritional requirements have changed during the course of evolution and mankind needs to address this, especially as the evolution of our cravings and what we perceive as “good for us” is too slow to address this - and actually the impact on the world we live in is massive.
In the face of world hunger, growing obesity in the US and Europe (but also in other developed countries with successful economies) and climate change, we nowadays have to make our choices carefully. Choosing what we eat does literally make a difference! We have to opt for a balanced diet, one that satisfies us, but also pays tribute to all above.
As a restaurant, our main objective is to create food that our diners will enjoy, something they enjoy and something that they are prepared to pay their hard earned money for.
At the Valea Verde Restaurant by Jonas Schäfer we have chosen to try and create a curated dining experience for our guests. We serve a seven course Tasting Menu, which changes every day. This menu consists of six small dishes and a main course, which is giving our guests a diverse experience. We always make sure that the majority of the menu is also vegetarian, or in some cases even vegan, so that we limit the impact our food has on the environment. Another measure of how we increase our eco credentials is to source as much as we can locally (mainly within a 80 km radius) and buying from small scale farmers or locals.
However, striving to be environmentally friendly is not the only reason we decided to embrace these practices - we also find it just tastes so much better - and yes, we are “Passionate About flavor”!
In our cuisine we love layering flavour's creating intense and bold flavour profiles, which provoke and inspire and that don´t just taste good, they also convey the flavour of our region, our culture and convey a story of who we are.
PS: If I were to choose a wine-pairing for these words, I would suggest a glass of chilled Villa Vinea “Diamant”, a white wine from a winery just 12 km away from us made from two indigenous Romanian grape varieties…!
In times where access to all kind of cuisines as well as ingreedients become so readily available, we have to focus & make conscious choices for us and the world!
