Surprise picnic

It was the pandemic, and the couple had gone a hundred days without leaving home. Dominique dreamed of a motorhome, but this was not the time to buy one. So Bruno made his own version of the dream: he laid out a picnic on the roof of the pickup, at a lookout in Búzios, and asked Vitor to take care of what would be served up there.

The request was for simple picnic bites. But Vitor went to hear the story behind the picnic — and found the clue in a gift Bruno had already given Dominique: a custom ice-cream cart. If that cart was part of their story, it was in that cart that the food had to arrive.

Late in the afternoon, with the sun going down, Vitor climbed the lookout pulling the cart, to the soundtrack of Up, announcing himself with the ice-cream seller’s call: “Ó o sorvete!”. Out of it came a bouquet of sunflowers and a ceviche served in a fresh coconut.

The dish had been designed for that place. Vitor brought a mirrored base, chosen to bring the sunset sky into the dish, and set the coconut on it. That is how he presented it to the couple: the first ceviche served over the sky. There was also a chocolate tart, Dominique’s favourite.

The setting was Bruno’s; the second surprise was Vitor’s. Bruno remembers the scene like this: “the childlike smile at seeing Jover appear out of nowhere, bringing his talents inside an ice-cream cart”.