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More than 10 years have passed since Mexican chef Armando Saldanha closed his first Amaranto, a restaurant located in El Sauzal (Tenerife) that marked a before and after in terms of the Mexican-Canarian fusion food that was being prepared at the time. And although farewells are never pleasant, sometimes there are happy “endings”: the chef, who has lived in the Canary Islands for 25 years and trained with the Gamonal family, Sergi Arola, Paco Roncero and Phillipe Batet, has decided to recover his most personal project by reopening with Patricia Saenz (his partner) that Amaranto that was so much enjoyed by locals and foreigners alike.
That is why the fans of those gastronomic formulas are in luck. The new restaurant has a new location (it is now in a rural area a few minutes from La Laguna, in Tegueste) and occupies an attractive traditional mansion with a terrace (made of stone and wood). And at his tables, Saldanha “osmotizes his native Mexico (Puebla), his apprenticeship in French cuisine and the inevitable creative fascination for the Canary Islands, configuring a colorful, personal and progressive culinary panorama”, as explained in the magazine 7Caníbales by the gastronomic critic Xavier Agulló.
All this translates, at least for the moment, into three different menus (there is no menu) (Mestizaje, Raíces and Saldanha) which include dishes such as brandade tartlet with coriander mojo; Iberian cheek with ‘manchamanteles’ and mashed plantain and guava, maria cookie and yogurt; the pompano with fermented corn and chili sauce; the mini tuna and cilantro tartare tartare with chipotle mayonnaise, a classic of the first Amaranto; or the deconstructed María Victoria lemon tart, made with lemon cream, maria cookie cream, meringue crumble and lemon ice cream.
In short, the chef thus returns to his gastronomic origins thanks to his most personal and creative project. Congratulations.
