„Fifty Shades Of Tuna“. What does it take for a per­fect evening of culina­ry delight at „The View“ in Hotel Grace, St. Moritz? Two crea­ti­ve chefs – and a bluef­in tuna weig­hing over 210 kilo­grams, fresh­ly caught in Spain and deli­ver­ed by Bianchi with mini­mal delay. The two chefs are 15-point Gault chef Andrea Bonini, who enjoys home advan­ta­ge here, and guest chef Pablo González Conejero, who runs the two-Michelin-star­red Cabaña Buenavista in Murcia, Spain, and is an expert in tuna. The four-hands col­la­bo­ra­ti­on of the two chefs allo­wed guests to expe­ri­ence, in a sen­se, „Fifty Shades Of Tuna“. Large image abo­ve: Juan Pedro Rodríguez, Pablo González Conejero and Andrea Bonini (from left).

Master Cutter Juan: Already dis­sec­ted 20,000 pie­ces. But first, in the after­noon, Juan Pedro Rodríguez made his appear­ance. The Master Cutter from tuna hou­se Fuentes has expert­ly dis­sec­ted over 20,000 tuna in the last 31 years of his life. In his lug­ga­ge? Impressive kni­ves, lon­ger than his fore­arm. Plus hooks to fix the fish, which look as if they came straight from the props of „Pirates of The Caribbean“. In front of about 30 chefs from the regi­on, he demon­stra­ted how to car­ve the magni­fi­cent beast. The first chall­enge, howe­ver, was to hoist the fish from the Styrofoam box out­side the restau­rant onto the marb­le coun­ter insi­de. Unsurprisingly, given its weight, almost the enti­re „View“ bri­ga­de had to lend a hand.

Complaints at „Bianchi“? None. The cell pho­nes of all the chefs were out, but they see­med to impress Cutter Juan very litt­le. With con­cen­tra­ted, almost som­nam­bu­li­stic cuts, he first sepa­ra­ted the tail fin, then the head of the tuna. The lat­ter, of cour­se, not wit­hout careful­ly remo­ving the cheeks and neck pie­ces, which are con­side­red a deli­ca­cy in Spanish gastro­no­my. This has a cer­tain logic, as the­se amount to only one kilo out of the 210 kilo­grams of fish. Juan took about an hour to also remo­ve the bel­ly and back fil­lets. Together, the two teams from „Grace“ and „Buenavista“ por­tio­ned the­se pie­ces into prac­ti­cal culina­ry units. Bianchi CEO Alessandro Battaglia was enthu­sia­stic about the „Fuentes“ tuna: „The qua­li­ty is out­stan­ding – we have had zero com­plaints so far,“ he said with satisfaction.

Moses Ceylan’s break. Meanwhile, the two chefs ser­ved some colorful tuna appe­ti­zers. Particularly suc­cessful: luke­warm panella, a fried chick­pea bread with tuna sas­hi­mi, Piment d’Espelette, and lemon zest by Andrea Bonini. Or „Morillo“, the aro­ma­tic neck pie­ce of the fish, com­bi­ned with sweet honey-car­rot esca­be­che by Pablo González Conejero. Among tho­se impres­sed by the snacks was Moses Ceylan, who was pre­sent during his break and had a bril­li­ant start last December at „Ya Mama“, the first Levantine restau­rant in Engadin at Hotel Cresta Palace: „Usually, such appe­ti­zers are often subt­le and per­haps pre­pared with a kick of aci­di­ty,“ he noted. „But the­se had a remar­kab­le intensity.“

Stew like in Spain. In the evening, an eight-cour­se din­ner was ser­ved, which – apart from the des­serts – focu­sed enti­re­ly on dif­fe­rent tuna cuts. Here, Pablo González Conejero impres­sed with two very spe­cial pre­pa­ra­ti­ons: a tuna ver­si­on of the Spanish meat stew cal­led „Cocido“. Usually pre­pared with bacon, off­al, cho­ri­zo, and beans, Pablo’s almost demi-glace-thick pre­pa­ra­ti­on of various tuna pie­ces fea­tured two bright green sphe­res fil­led with the fat­ty bone mar­row of the tuna. And as the icing on the cake, sweet-green tasting „tear peas“ were added, which are some­ti­mes traded almost as expen­si­ve­ly as cavi­ar. A second top dish was an ori­gi­nal crea­ti­on he named after a term from tuna dis­sec­tion: „Ronqueo“ means some­thing like „sno­ring“. This refers to the sound made when cut­ting along the tun­a’s spi­ne with a kni­fe. The dish fea­tures various cuts of tuna: for exam­p­le, a but­ter-ten­der, beau­tiful­ly gla­zed cheek com­bi­ned with a pie­ce of tuna skin (!) brai­sed for two hours at 90 degrees. This is accom­pa­nied by a back fil­let tar­ta­re with car­rots, plus a chip with bel­ly tartare.

Ravioli, tuna, articho­ke, cori­an­der. Andrea Bonini also devi­sed sur­pri­sing dis­hes, ensu­ring that the evening – exclu­si­ve­ly fea­turing tuna cuts – pro­ved anything but bor­ing. Particularly suc­cessful: his ravio­li fil­led with cacio e pepe cream, ser­ved with com­pa­ra­tively fat­ty, light­ly war­med sli­ces of tuna bel­ly, ele­gant­ly tart articho­ke sau­ce, and a noti­ceable hint of cori­an­der. Who knows, per­haps this deli­cious pri­mo will reap­pear on the menu in the coming weeks? Because: „The tuna pie­ces we cut today will pro­ba­b­ly last for about a month,“ says Bonini. „Unless, of cour­se, I give them to the staff for their meal, then they’ll be gone today.“