Ḧetta, Swedish for heat, is the latest project by Tribu Woki. Located in a modern and welcoming space with nordic aesthetic, open kitchen, high tables and stools, it has a casual atmosphere and background music. Ambient during lunch, louder by dinner. Awaiting, a menu that alludes to a gastronomic experience, offers the possibility to choose between different seasonal products cooked at different temperatures.
A fridge displaying 9 seasonal raw products, welcomes guests at the bottom of the stairs. These products, which are now peas, asparagus, eggs, oysters, tuna, crab, duck and meat, will change every season and will be the only products you’ll find in the menu at different cooking temperatures. Raw, smoked, marinated, boiled… creating a range of over 30 different dishes, without counting dessert.
The menu might seem a bit hard to read at the beginning, but it is a simple X&Y axis system. Raw material on the X axis, cooking temperature on the Y axis. So you just have to choose which product you’d like to eat and then choose at what temperature you want it cooked. From 5 to 6 dishes per couple is the recommended amount.
Eight young and dynamic hands join efforts in a complete open kitchen to create wonders to eyes and palate. Olof Johansson (Swedish, executive chef), David Morera (Spanish, ex Dos Palillos), Alberto Sambinelli (Italian, ex Àbac) and Paola Pisciotti (Colombian, ex Pakta).
The fact that you can see every movement and hear every chef’s instruction, makes the overall a great experience. Coolest detail is, in a space where kitchen tables and dining rooms merge, there’s no place for waiters, the same chef brings your dish to your table and makes the pertinent explanation.
I’ll leave you with our choice.
We started off with a Tuna tataki with tartar sauce, served by the very same chef who created it and topped it with grated raifort root, which smells like wasabi:
Followed by a Classic steak tartare, all hand cut, with Italian wild capers and beet dice:
Then Fried asparagus with stracciatella and pistachio oil:
Egg yolk noodles with mushrooms and duck broth poured by the cef right at the table:
The Ossobuco. The hole of the bone is filled with stewed meat mixed with marrow, topped with pickled cucumber. The chef that brings it to the table fires a blowtorch to smoke the rosemary which will leave a delicious smell in the room for a few seconds.
Here comes my favourite part: dessert!! You’ll realize the dessert menu is quite limited and there is an explanation for that. Hetta considers the first time one goes, the menu might seem a little overwhelming or a bit complicated, you have to think twice before your final decision. So by the time you get to dessert they wanted it to be the simplest choice. Ice cream, and tartlet with fresh fruit.
We ordered the traditional cream tart with fresh fruit. The story behind it: the father of Alberto Sambinelli, Italian from Torino, is the creator of the recipe that has passed down to his son, who now creates this amazing tart at Hetta:
We washed everything down with El Marciano, a young red wine from Castilla-León (26€):
To thank Ezequiel Trigos, head of hall and sumiller, and Lua Costa, who guided us through an extensive menu, solved our doubts and explained us the idea behind it all.
Since the menu changes every season, I’m eating at Hetta at least 3 more times this year!
