{"id":195092,"date":"2025-09-02T21:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T21:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/195092\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T21:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T21:21:14","slug":"mamani-wants-to-make-the-michelin-experience-feel-more-casual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/195092\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamani Wants to Make the Michelin Experience Feel More Casual"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Dallas\u2019s most anticipated restaurants of the year is anticipated no more<\/a>. As of September 2, Mamani has opened its doors at 2681 Howell Street in Uptown\u2019s Quad development.<\/p>\n

At the helm is executive chef and partner Christophe De Lellis, who spent more than a decade cooking at Jo\u00ebl Robuchon in Las Vegas<\/a>, one of the few restaurants in the world to hold three Michelin stars. With Mamani, De Lellis takes on more approachable cooking with one foot in casual French bistro fare and another in fine dining.<\/p>\n

Drawing inspiration from the French and Italian Rivieras, De Lellis describes Mamani\u2019s philosophy as rooted in simplicity. \u201cI wanted to use ingredients that people are really familiar with,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We\u2019re just trying to do something that is tasty and that will please everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Mamani, that translates into plates built around common proteins and vegetables like salmon, chicken, artichokes, and corn. The idea is to enliven dishes many diners might consider boring or basic \u2014 how often do you order non-fried chicken at a restaurant, really? De Lellis leans on techniques he honed at Jo\u00ebl Robuchon to deliver food that\u2019s both precise and packed with flavor, including a frequent menu appearance: a three-day chicken jus with a color as deep as soy sauce.<\/p>\n

\"Jidori<\/a><\/p>\n

Jidori chicken with turnips, sunchokes, and vin jaune sauce. Kathy Tran<\/p>\n

The finishing touch on this dish \u2014 and a staple on much of Mamani\u2019s menu \u2014 is that aforementioned three-day chicken jus. De Lellis says the team dries 120 pounds of chicken wings overnight, then sears them \u201cfor about an hour to get a really dark, golden color. Then we put them in a pot with shallots, thyme, garlic, and water, and cook this for about five to six hours to extract all the flavor.\u201d The next day, the jus is strained, chilled, and skimmed, then the jus is reduced from about 60 quarts down to six. \u201cIt takes hours and hours until it\u2019s concentrated,\u201d De Lellis says. The sauce thickens naturally, without starch or salt.<\/p>\n

That jus is drizzled over the chicken, served with both thigh and breast. Revered in Japan and California, Jidori is so highly regarded that some dare to eat it raw, sashimi-style<\/a>. De Lellis chooses it for its clean flavor and smaller size. \u201cIt\u2019s like three pounds, so we serve half-a-chicken per person,\u201d he says. This size makes it possible to plate both dark and white meat together. The dish also comes with glazed turnips, a silky sunchoke pur\u00e9e, and a sauce made from vin jaune, a yellow wine out of France\u2019s Jura region.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The agnolotti pasta with chanterelle mushrooms and sweet corn. Kathy Tran<\/p>\n

The pasta features chanterelle mushrooms and a simple sauce made with butter and chicken stock. \u201cI don\u2019t put any mascarpone or ricotta inside. We just cook the corn really deep, then we blend it so it\u2019s like the pure essence of the corn,\u201d De Lellis says. The dish is finished with chives and a touch of chicken jus. De Lellis sources the corn from Brentwood, California \u2014 he\u2019s drawn to its rich yellow hue and sweetness and the chanterelles come from the Pacific Northwest. \u201cI just think they grow the best mushrooms in America in [that] area,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Artichoke<\/a><\/p>\n

Artichoke salad with za\u2019atar yogurt. Kathy Tran<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can get really good, big artichokes here in Texas, and I wanted to use the artichoke in a different way,\u201d De Lellis says. \u201cI take the heart of the artichoke and poach it, and with all the scraps, I make chips. My idea was to play around with different textures and preparations of the artichoke and link the whole thing together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chef<\/a><\/p>\n

The artichoke salad feature hearts and scraps that are friend into chips. Kathy Tran<\/p>\n

The plate starts with a base of za\u2019atar yogurt, seasoned with preserved lemon and garlic. The poached artichoke goes on top, followed by a spoonful of baba ghanoush made with eggplant and smoked paprika. \u201cI poke the chips into that, then finish with confit tomato for sweetness and mint oil for freshness,\u201d he says. \u201cI really like the approach of taking one product and preparing it in different ways, different proportions. That\u2019s the way I like to play with food in general, especially with vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Salmon<\/a><\/p>\n

The Scottish Salmon sits on a sauce made with a chickpea broth. Kathy Tran<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times in a fine-dining setup, you don\u2019t see a lot of salmon unless it\u2019s sushi or omakase,\u201d he says. \u201cI was like, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

The preparation starts with a Scottish salmon, lightly cured for about 10 minutes to firm the fish, then cooked medium-rare and seared on one side and brushed slowly on the other. \u201cWe serve it with braised fennel that we cook for an hour until it\u2019s super creamy and tender and, on top, I put a raw fennel salad for crunch,\u201d he says. \u201cSo you have the contrast between the braise, which is buttery and soft, and the crunch of the raw fennel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sauce is built with a chickpea broth, made in the same spirit as the chicken jus. \u201cWe cook it with shallot, garlic, and reduce it with a little cream,\u201d De Lellis says. \u201cWe make our own chickpea tamari as well, so it\u2019s like a take on a chickpea and turmeric [stew].\u201d The dish is finished with espelette chili oil and fig-leaf oil.<\/p>\n

\"Thinly<\/a><\/p>\n

Thinly sliced veal is feature in this take on the classic vitello tonnato dish. Kathy Tran<\/p>\n

For his take on the traditional Italian dish, De Lellis uses veal eye round, cooked medium-rare and sliced very thin. \u201cWe make the tonnato dressing pretty classic, with tuna, capers, anchovy, mayo, lemon, and all that,\u201d he says. \u201cThe only little tweak that I do is we put it in a siphon to make it more airy and light.\u201d The dish is finished with fried capers and pickled mustard seeds.<\/p>\n

Here again, the three-day jus makes another appearance. \u201cWe\u2019re really proud of all of the sauces we do in-house,\u201d De Lellis says. \u201cIt\u2019s so powerful that we just put a few drops on, and it\u2019s pure flavor.\u201d<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited for clarity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Dallas\u2019s most anticipated restaurants of the year is anticipated no more. As of September 2, Mamani…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,74169,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-195092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-inside-the-dishes","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115136802916576231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}