Barcelona Fairfield Chef Heats up Ladies' Lunch

Helton DaSilva knows how to work a room. The 26 year-old native of Brazil is currently the Executive Chef at Barcelona in Fairfield, but his talents expand beyond the kitchen. Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of watching him in action, courtesy of CTBites.

It was a chef demo and lunch, and the ladies who were lunching met Chef Helton’s enthusiasm and raised a flirt or two. “Are you married?” one woman ventured after the chef had introduced himself, much to the tittering pleasure of the crowd.

And this was before sangria was served.

The demo lunch was a mix of insider tips and delicious dishes with more than a dash of Chef Helton’s charm thrown in. In fact, most of the women there seemed to be torn as to whether they’d rather have Chef Helton cook for them or sit down to lunch with them.

“I love pig,” the chef announced as he turned on the burner in front of him. “That’s why I’ve put bacon in all three dishes I am making today. And I’m using the good stuff, not that packaged bacon. Real bacon.”

Chef Helton’s bacon heavy menu was a study in (mostly) Spanish simplicity. “Spanish cuisine is all about the ingredients. It’s not about how much food, or about how it looks. It’s about purity of ingredients and how that translates to taste.”

First, he prepared an escarole salad with marinated white beans, raw shallots, raw garlic, chili flakes, extra virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt and black pepper. “I’m going to sautée the escarole in bacon fat,” explained the chef. “And I know you all have bacon fat at home in your kitchen. It’s good. Don’t be afraid. This is a judgment-free zone.”

Most people, he explained, use too much heat to cook bacon. “You’ve got to go slow,” he advised. “Oh, and by the way: chefs in restaurants, we don’t have nice pans. Our sautée pans are all messed up. So don’t feel bad about your pans at home.”

The salad was decadent as only a salad prepared with bacon fat can be. It was almost naughty. For those who count calories more closely, it was downright scandalous. Everyone dug in with abandon.

“Is this on the menu?” someone asked.

“No,” said Chef Helton. “It’s not on the menu. But listen, I always have one or two things, you know, hidden in the kitchen. When you come here, you just tell them [the staff] to tell me you’re here and I can make you something. You can say, ‘Helton, what’s for dinner?’”

Chef Helton’s next dish was scallops served in a beurre blanc prepared with Meier lemon.

“Chefs' knives suck, too,” he joked as he sliced the lemon in half. “You think we have great knives, but they’re terrible.”

Despite the challenge of creating with substandard tools, Chef Helton managed to wow the crowd with this dish as well, both in the preparation and the taste.

“You have to be gentle with scallops,” he said as he lifted his sautée pan. “People overcook scallops. And they flip them too much. Don’t flip them so much. If it sticks to the pan, it’s not ready to flip.”

The lunch crowd, however, was flipping in earnest. “This is literally cooked perfectly,” said Stephanie Webster, one of my lunch companions and founder of CTBites, of the scallops Chef Helton had just prepared.

The third and final dish, Chef Helton announced, would be a bit of a departure. “We’ve done a lot of Spanish stuff, so the next dish has a little French influence. Why not?” The boarder crossing dish: a pan-roasted quail served with frisee and a fig compote.

“I really like figs,” he said. “My grandfather had a fig tree in his backyard when I was a kid. We always had them. Here, you can’t find fresh figs, so dehydrated figs are good to use. They’re nice and sweet. When we cook them, we’re going to extract all the flavor.” Chef Helton then deftly sliced the figs, tossed them into the pot, added brown sugar, sherry, sherry vinegar and a touch of salt. “You really need to let this simmer for at least two hours to get all that flavor.” After that, you dump it all into a blender and puree. Then you’re ready to move on to the quail.

“Don’t overcook your quail,” Chef Helton cautioned. “It’s like duck. And when you pan roast anything, make sure it’s nice and dry to begin with. You don’t want water in there. You start with the breast side down because that’s the thickest part,” he said as the quail sizzled in the pan. “Don’t flip too much,” he reminded.  And, when in doubt, toss in a little bacon.

Once we all had our dishes, Chef Helton offered one more piece of advice. “Ladies, put down your forks. You’re supposed to eat quail with your hands.”

Having lost a little inhibition during the demonstration, we needed no further encouragement and dug in with both hands.

Chef Helton offers monthly cooking classes at Barcelona in Fairfield. Call (203) 255-0800 for more information. CTBites Invites offers regular deals on insider events, tastings and things generally delicious.

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