Cook Like Cagali: Recipes from London’s Elis Restaurant

Elis is the new, more casual offering from chef Rafael Cagali of London’s two-Michelin-star Da Terra restaurant. A Brazilian with Italian heritage, Cagali worked at the likes of Villa Feltrinelli on Lake Garda, and at The Fat Duck in Bray, before leading Da Terra at the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green, East London, to a first and then a second Michelin star.

Now he’s going back to his roots, looking to the mixed Brazilian-Italian dishes of his childhood for Elis, also at the hotel, and named after his mother’s first jazz bar/restaurant in São Paulo.

“Some of my earliest memories are of my mother and grandmother cooking in the kitchen. Elis is inspired by recipes I grew up eating. They are personal to my roots, but also dishes that I hope everyone will find some nostalgia in. Ultimately, all my food at Da Terra and Elis is rooted in memories and nostalgia in some way,” he says.

The dishes include the likes of pecorino churros and Arctic char crudo with tucupi dressing, the recipes for which you’ll find in this article, as well as porchetta tonnata, pastas, and Iberico pork with black beans and chimichurri, “which reminds me a lot of eating feijoada on a Saturday with my family,” he says.

Heading up the kitchen is Joe Holness, formerly a member of the Da Terra team.

“He is an incredibly talented and hardworking chef, he has an understanding and passion for the inspiration and philosophy of Elis, so he was a natural choice for the position,” says Cagali.

Cagali considers both Brazilian and Italian cultures as part of his identity, which continually inspires his creativity. “Brazil has such a complex history, there is a diverse range of influences and cultures that make Brazilian culture what it is. The Italian side of my background really focuses on the simplicity of enjoyment in good comforting flavour and showing love through cooking.”

There is one thing they have in common though. “I think both cultures love to make people happy through food,” he says.