07-08-2014
Chef Andrea Bernardi, 36: Italian (originally from Marino, in the Castelli Romani area) together with his Chilean wife Fernanda Fuentes Cárdenas offers a creative and evolved cuisine at Nómada, on the island of Tenerife. Which is beginning to be too small for him...
Can you fall in love in the kitchen? We’re about to speak about two loves at first sight. The first is the one between an Italian chef working in Tenerife, Andrea Bernardi, 36, and Fernanda Fuentes Cárdenas, young Chilean chef who arrived on the island for an internship and never left: the two are now husband and wife and are at the helm of Nómada, in El Sauzal, with a beautiful view of the ocean and an intelligent high quality bistronomy offer.
The second is the one between the author of this piece and Bernardi’s cuisine: original, technical, elegant. I’ve rarely met such an evolved style in a location unknown to guides. Of course the fault is that of the peripheral position of the island: indeed, Tenerife is not around the corner. And while few are prophets in their country (Bernardi, originally from Marino, in the Castelli Romani area, after some experience in Italy – including some months with Heinz Beck – has worked in Germany and Austria before moving to Spain, in Valencia), something else is also true: it is hard for an Italian to stand out if he doesn’t want to speak about pummarola, limoncello and mandolins and avoids stereotypes but instead is focused on contemporaneity – and has three different roners, just to give an example.
One of Bernardi’s latest creations, which we had not the chance to taste but we would like very much: Tomates marinados, caballa ahumada y tocino ibérico, that is to say six different types of tomatoes, marinated in a different way (with garlic, lemon, basil, coriander, Peruvian yellow chilli pepper and oregano), with smoked mackerel and Iberian pancetta
Mullet with a stock made with toasted hazelnuts, radishes, beets and lavender
Bernardi has also founded the Frack chefs group, of which 35-year-old Catalan Pau Bermejo is also a member – he dishes out (with happy though less creative results) at Casa Maquila, a nice restaurant in nearby Santa Cruz de Tenerife, among the streets of the casco historico on the Unesco world heritage list.
An outdoor trip or a journey to the other side of the planet? One thing is for sure: the destination is delicious, by Carlo Passera
by
journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief