Latin Spice Adds Sabor to Chefs & Champagne Event

Latin Flavor was well represented on Saturday afternoon at the James Beard Foundation's  annual gastronomic tasting party, Chefs & Champagne at the Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack. More than 30 chefs came together for the annual scholarship fundraiser and to honor the guest of honor, James Beard Award-winning chef Bobby Flay. 

On hand to dish out some of his most delicious dishes was David Santos, the wildly creative chef-owner of West Village hot spot Louro. The son of Portuguese immigrants, Santos discovered his love of food at an early age in the Portuguese countryside. 

“For me my love of food began with my aunt,” Santos said. “Growing up on the farm in Portugal was really the fondest memories I have of Portugal, getting the eggs from the chickens, trying to wrestle them away from the rooster was hysterical to me. I loved to doing that. Waking up early with my aunt to make bread, those are my fondest memories.”

Santos developed an underground following in 2012 when he launched a supper club cleverly titled Um Segredo, Portuguese for “a secret”, and started experimenting with recipes. The word spread quickly.

That venture led to Louro, where the menu is a mashup of Asian, Portuguese, Italian, and tropical flavors. But things are a bit slow at the moment. “It's summer. Everybody's [in the Hamptons], including me,” joked Santos. “We can't wait till Fall hits again.”

To combat the summer slowness Santos created the Nossa Messo ("our table" in Portuguese) supper club. "It all started because of the supper club I used to run out of my apartment on Roosevelt Island and I wanted to keep that idea alive because it was so instrumental in opening Louro," Santos said. "We basically take the supper club and plant it there every Monday, something new, something different, guest chefs. It's foods I grew up eating in the summer.”

On the Portuguese Summer menu are a seafood turnover, cucumber salad, sardine escabeche, mariscada, grilled quail, and pollock with figs and almonds.

“I think as a whole Portuguese food is misrepresented in NYC, the market hasn't been there for it,” Santos said.  “This is crazy to me because it's the country that's been the most influential in food because of the spice trade and the colonies so it's weird to me that it hasn't really taken off."

And we're excited to see what Santos can bring to NYC. As for guest of honor Bobby Flay, he was just excited to take in the night. 

“It's the James Beard Foundation so obviously it's a huge honor,” said Flay. “ I've had some great history with the James Beard Foundation. Cooking at the Beard house is even more important and this is the Hamptons. I'm thrilled to be here."