Culinary Adventures with Chef Luiz
(Chef Silverio Luiz Tecedor is a chef consultant for IDF, who has spent the past 40+
years cooking and traveling around the world. Through the years, he typically flew
more than 100,000 miles annually, while cooking, teaching and learning about food
for CPC/Best Foods/Unilever. Here at IDF, we’re delighted that Chef Luiz has agreed
to share some of his global food-lore.)

A sampling of APAS 2010 in São Paulo …
…for me, it’s pizza and olive oil

I got an invitation to attend the APAS (São Paulo State Supermarket Association) 2010 from a friend who was exhibiting. He imports and markets olive oil from Europe, and I learned a few things about the olive oil market and what’s new in food retailing.

APAS is the trade show organized by the regional supermarket association. During three days, about 800 companies from all over Brazil bring their products, new or already in the market to show prospective customers, from large chains to mom-and-pop stores. I only had been at this show once before in 2002, and was amazed at how this trade show has grown in both the number and size of booths. Today it is much more like what you would expect to see at a European or U.S. trade show.

All my life, I’ve had a thing about checking out job opportunities in the newspaper. Now my daughters tell me I have to learn to look on the Internet…“no more newspapers, Daddy,” they say. While that may be true, the best jobs are still within your network of colleagues and suppliers.

The situation seems better for the chefs working as consultants than full-time employees. Many new chefs are trying this as an option, which makes the field a bit crowded, but good for the industry. Consultants can get lots of experience during short periods with no commitment.

As usual, we had lots of students full of hope, energy and dreams for their careers. This makes the older chefs, like me, feel good that we are teaching and influencing lives. In a way, I feel that we are paying back what we received from our mentors. This was very clear when I saw our older RCA members helping the newcomers with their presentations, playing second fiddle, when they used to be the maestro. It’s also good to see the chefs that started the RCA keeping it running even when times are tough. They are great people, helping out whenever needed, and they are proud of their profession.

It’s my take that this conference was more ‘science’ than ‘culinary,’—but then again it’s less expensive to talk about strategy and methods than to put on culinary demonstrations. Overall though, it was good, and I’m glad I was there. The learning sessions (workshops) covered many subjects, from formulation to marketing new products.

Also impressive was the number of regional brands that are expanding into other states.

The convention was in São Paulo, which is the largest city in Brazil—around 20 million people and growing steadily. São Paulo has more restaurants than the rest of the country, featuring all kinds of ethnic foods. Japanese restaurants are everywhere. This is due to a large Japanese immigration before World War II, but São Paulo also had a large influx of Italians, Portuguese, Spanish, Syrian and Lebanese immigrants. Middle Eastern restaurants, which we refer to as Lebanese, are the best I have seen, even better than what I encountered when I visited the Middle East and Israel or Manhattan.

All these immigrants brought with them different food and spices, yet the one thing it seems they had in common is a love of olive oil. This has made us a country of olive oil fanatics. There are hundreds of brands of olive oil available from all the producing regions of the world, but Portuguese olive oil is the most desirable. Many people still refer to olive oil as Portuguese Oil, not even mentioning olive or that the oil came from other countries. An interesting fact: some economists use olive oil imports as a thermometer of how the economy is doing, because it is so important to our eating habits.

Pizza Brazilian-style
São Paulo is really famous in Brazil for its pizzas and pizzerias. Paulistas, as the people living here (native or not) are called, are crazy about pizza. And everybody has a favorite pizzeria. Some are very expensive with pizza costing up to US$80, but most are around US$20-$30, per pie. This being the country that invented the rodizio-style restaurant, we have Pizza Rodizio, as well.

For those of you unfamiliar, rodizio literally means ‘going around’ in Portuguese. This type of restaurant service originated in the south of Brazil. It began in steak/barbecue restaurants, where the waiters ‘go around’ with roasted meats on a spit. They slice and serve the meats directly onto plates at the table. The waiters keep coming around with different cuts of meats, until you tell them to stop. So now we have "rodizios," which originally was only for roasted meats, for pizza, sushi and many other types of food in Brazil.

Nobody eats pizza with their hands in Brazil. It’s always with fork and knife. Many international pizza chains have tried to get into this market, but without success. We are very particular about our pizza and how it is prepared. Pizza here has a very thin crust with lots of toppings. And we drink beer with it. We’re not a wine-drinking country, even though wine consumption is on the rise.

Another interesting thing about our pizza customs is the use of olive oil. Besides putting it into the dough, at every table in the pizzerias, there is a bottle of imported olive oil. It’s used to drip over the top of pizza slices before eating, much like Americans add Parmesan cheese or red pepper flakes.

We are going out for a pizza tonight. I can’t wait!

Tchau!!!