From Sao Paulo to Sao Paulo, passing through Norway. It's the curious story of Brazilian chef Denise Guerschman, with clear German origins and even a physical appearance that makes her seem truly Norwegian, although born in Santo André, in the metropolitan area of São Paulo. However, Denise actually lived in Norway – and Sweden – for almost 10 years, during which she trained as a chef, specializing in Scandinavian cuisine.
Working in various restaurants including the Michelin-starred Bagatelle, Guerschman learned to make typical dishes of Northern European gastronomy, from Viking suppe to Fårikål, from Kjøttkaker to the sweet Aeblekage and drinks based on mead, swithout forgetting the Finnish soup Lohikeitto and the Danish specialty Braenende Kjaerlighed. So, upon returning to Brazil in 2018, the chef opened the restaurant O Escandinavo in the Pinheiros neighborhood, one of the most bohemian in São Paulo.
“I offer authentic Scandinavian cuisine, but reinterpreted from my Brazilian perspective,” she explains. The clientele is made up of curious Brazilians, who were able to sample Denise's cuisine at her restaurant. watch the Norwegian national team's campaign at the World Cup on TV (including the historic victory against Brazil), but also by Scandinavians: “Especially Swedes – confesses the chef -. There are hundreds of Swedish companies in São Paulo., while Norwegian expats tend to live in Rio de Janeiro, where the oil company Equinor is based.”
In the metropolitan area of São Paulo, important Scandinavian companies such as Ericsson, Volvo, Electrolux, ABB and many others are actually based. In Denise's restaurant they find a corner of Northern Europe but with South American influences. The dishes of O Escandinavo are in fact revisited with that touch of BraziliannessOne of the tastiest and most original proposals is il Tropical Bacalhau, the tropical cod.
The ingredients: One ripe pineapple, one diced tomato, one chopped red onion, three cloves of garlic, a handful of chopped parsley, 200 ml of coconut milk, 200 g of cream, a large tablespoon of turmeric, half a kilo (for 4 people) of desalted and shredded Norwegian cod, a knob of butter or margarine, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Serve all this inside the hollowed-out pineapple. As a side dish, Denise suggests: rice with seared coconut flakes, farofa with onion, bacon, Parà chestnut and cashew nut, two crunchy cassava flowers baked in the oven.
