“No copycats! If you offer what others offer, you won't get recognized. You might as well give up.”
The chef
An Austrian who is more Portuguese than anyone born in Portugal. It is precisely this peculiarity, combined with his talent, that makes Hans Neuner unique. For the Austrian-born chef and owner of Ocean in the Algarve, a restaurant that earned its first star in just 18 months and its second two years later, it is uniqueness that makes a person stand out from those around them. "Our restaurant has been open for twenty years: to survive, we have to constantly reinvent ourselves and continue to amaze our guests. If I didn't change at least something every year, no one would come back. They would get bored. Every time someone dines here, my job is to win them over again. That's what matters: no copies! If you offer what many others offer, you won't be recognized and in the end you might as well give up," the chef confides to Rolling Pin.
A need and desire to surprise and give something unexpected to diners has been further strengthened during the Covid lockdown, when restaurants were forced to close. This forced pause allowed Neuner's curiosity and desire to showcase different regions and culinary cultures through his dishes to blossom and flourish. In 2020, the chef and his team embarked on their first adventurous journey to discover Portugal, its ingredients, and its producers. Since then, these trips have dictated the theme of Ocean's menu year after year.
"The idea for our themed menus came about during the Coronavirus pandemic. We had to close, and I didn't want my team and I to just sit around for six months. So we bought camping equipment and set off on a trip through Portugal. We visited producers, helped with the harvest, and had experiences we wouldn't normally have had time for. This gave us the idea of creating a menu based on these encounters and experiences, a concept that was immediately very well received. A year later, we developed the concept further and focused on the Portuguese islands: the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, and São Tomé. After this trip, we served our guests a typical island menu. As this idea was very well received, we decided to repeat it every year. In the following years, we also visited the former Portuguese colonies and created a colonial menu: from Africa to Brazil," he says.
This year, Chef Neuner's menu showcases the regions where many Portuguese people live. Together with his team, he visited San José in California, passing through Boston and Montreal, then on to Hawaii, Japan, and Bangkok, before returning to the Algarve with a wealth of stories stored in his heart and on his palate. This modus operandi is anything but predictable or simple, from any point of view. "The entire menu development process takes seven to eight months. In July and August, we decide on the theme and destinations. Then the planning and search for producers begins. Even the creation of our equipment, from tableware to decorations, can take up to six months, because each piece is unique. The actual trip lasts about a month, followed by three weeks of intensive testing in the kitchen. It's a huge logistical and financial challenge, as about 15 people work for three weeks without serving any guests."
It is a complex and costly process, but one that is unavoidable for the Austrian chef: “The desire for sensationalism has increased enormously in recent years. Technology has made people very demanding in visual terms because they are inundated with images online. The younger generations in particular are not easily impressed because they have already seen so much. To stand out, you have to be increasingly extreme.”
