Le Mandrac

Mediterranean cuisine with a modern twist, these are the words of Deniz Zembo, the owner of Le Mandrać, for his restaurant’s culinary philosophy. The trick is to get an unforgettable plate, to create an exquisite creation from the simplest, traditional ingredients. This is technically challenging cuisine, and we use minimal thermal processing and
new technologies. Unlike molecular cuisine, which comes as more of a sensation and less of an eating ritual, what we do
here ends in more food and less philosophy. When you take a bite, you have to hear that mmmm sound, the woohoo experience. If there’s no mmmm, you did something wrong, says Zembo.

 

Zembo is one of the most interesting characters on the Croatian culinary scene. He’s somewhat of a bad boy of Croatian gastronomy or, more precisely, a big teaser whose spontaneity and sense of humour are simply contagious. He talks about vices and the dark side of the culinary world without reservations. On the other hand, he is a top professional,
original and creative, with 21 years of experience and enormous energy. The dish best representing Zembo’s cuisine is his own, new fritaja, originally scrambled eggs, and now a “sunny side up” reinterpretation of traditional, Istrian fritaja, with potato and truffle mousse playing the egg white, and poached yolk shining as the sun. Surface layers play peeka-
boo with hidden shrimps, wiled asparagus, prosciutto… These rich flavours overwhelm with sensations of traditional fritaja with an artistic touch. Zembo’s cuisine is filled with smells of fish tartare, wild asparagus risotto, shrimp with bean mousse or vacuum cooked fish with wild herbs. His ideas are based in traditional roots, but the techniques used are
modern, minimalistic and complex. The menu consists of eleven to twelve courses, where three to four courses are changed every three months. “I’m inspired by life, by women and by ingredients – asparagus, strawberries.” His suppliers are local. “Stojan gets my organic range vegetables, Valerija gets Mediterranean herbs, Šemsa picka asparagus, common hogweed, milfoil, edible flowers…