The Culinary Secrets of Almayer | Traditional Cuisine and Creative Dishes

Their “Almayer” has given a completely new sense and charm to the abandoned building built back in 1863. The guiding idea was a combination of heritage, design and contemporary art, more specifically an art gallery and the comfort of a home.

All the details of a remodeled building have been carefully selected, from the ones in the “secret garden”, discreet hotel courtyard that is a hotel restaurant terrace and in the restaurant itself and in every one of all the 16 double bed rooms making the hotel has become popular and sought for throughout the year. 

Initially, Corte, the hotel restaurant, was envisaged as a bistro and wine bar, which was supported by a solid wine wall of 48 selected Croatian and foreign wines, but Corte was defined gastronomically only in 2022 when the owners joined partnership with the present head of the restaurant Andrej Vrsaljko. Young but already experienced, Andrej gathered a team of young chefs from the Zadar Cooking School and placed the talented chef Klaudio Mrkić as their head. They were joined by Ukrainian Serhii Pelekha and Brazilian Alana Choi and the latter was given a special task- to dedicate herself completely to à la carte breakfasts and brunches  as an exclusive part of the offer for hotel and other guests.  

Corte acquired a clear concept: today, modern, creative and attractive dishes are prepared there, which have their roots deep in the gastronomic heritage of the Mediterranean, Dalmatia and the Zadar region, and the ingredients are seasonal and coming from the local environment. Fish and other seafood and vegetables in individual dishes or combined with some kind of meat steak dominate the menu. In a unique roll chef Klaudio joined scampi with cream made of fresh peas and mascarpone cheese and acquired a spectacular cold appetizer.  Inspired by traditional cuttlefish and chickpea vegetable soup, a crepe dish 'on a spoon' from the islands of Zadar, resulted in a similar refreshing effect in a plate with cuttlefish with cucumbers and sun-dried tomatoes enriched with chickpea espuma and parmesan chips (or some other hard sheep cheese like the one from Pag). 

The leading star of the spring menu is a meat dish.  Indeed, fish lovers from that menu can choose from specialties such as scallops in pancetta and monkfish with aromatic fennel, vegans can also enjoy a plate with tofu accompanied by wasabi paste and sesame, but the grilled Dalmatian lamb is simple and excellent, the ideal dish for hungry meat lovers. Chef Klaudio does not allow his lamb chops, the ones that come from the Zadar surrounding pastures, to be over grilled and dried out. They are soft and aromatic, and the immortelle and rosemary sauce give the dish a pastoral design. It is also enriched with zucchini and tomato tart, and the side dish is duchess potatoes, an artistic version of puree. 

The chefs of Corte Restaurant adhere in principle to one of the postulates of the Mediterranean cuisine, according to which the original taste and aroma of food should be preserved as much as possible, and not 'dress it up' with the excessive addition of spices. Brazilian Alana Choi, who prepares the breakfast and brunch dishes agrees with this.

- Your food is so tasty, full of flavors... I am really lucky to be able to use homemade, quality and tested foods which then makes my work much easier. Otherwise, the food in your country is great, you don't spice it up much and you rarely complicate it. And it's actually the best, keeps everything that is important in each of the foods.

Lead by such thinking, Alana made up her own menu, full of meals that will not only be incidental gathering of energy for the upcoming day, but a top gourmand experience. The young chef added her own personality to the well-known Benedict eggs with fried Dalmatian pancetta and lots of different nuts and seasonal berries. And with a hearty Mediterranean breakfast, she shows how much she really cares about the local tradition: she placed a Dalmatian roast on a plate, dried and smoke flavored pork kare and added local škripavac cheese and the obligatory fried egg sunny side up. Alana’s ideas for breakfast and brunch and other imaginative dishes remain on the traces of traditional Dalmatian midmorning snacks (marende) that Dalmatians and inhabitants of Zadar consider to be the most important in the whole day. 

Chef Klaudio Mrkić and his team and Alana Choi change menus seasonally and need to reveal the pile of ideas that will be realized successfully this year as well as in the upcoming ones. It is up to us, everyone else, to discover them at Almayer, that unique hotel that offers much more than just accommodation.