My Brazilian heritage
(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.)

Culinary Adventures with Chef Luiz

Ola!

I never have liked cold weather, and now I have the luxury of avoiding it altogether.
From November to May, I live on the beach in the Southern Hemisphere on an island
off Sao Paolo, Brazil, and from June through October, I return to the States. Wherever
it’s warm, you’ll find me.

Contrary to what you might think, Brazilian food is not spicy—and by this, I mean hot,
spicy—but there’s a lot of flavor to it. Nor is all Brazilian food like what you find in a
Brazilian steakhouse or Churrascaria in the U.S. Brazil is a big country with diverse
terrain, and consequently, its food is varied from one end to the other.

In southern Brazil, the food is much like that of Argentina, because the countryside is
similar to Argentina, which it borders. It’s good for cattle grazing, so there’s a lot of
beef. There are also vineyards and apple and pear orchards. In the very far north in
the rainforest, where many indigenous people live, and it is very poor, they eat simple
meals of beef jerky and manioc or cassava—a starchy root vegetable.

In the middle, Italian and Spanish immigrants settled along with Portuguese and the
food in the region reflects their Mediterranean traditions—garlic, onions, olive oil with
some coconut milk, cashews and palm oil mixed in. I like to think of it as a
Mediterranean/Jamaican blend. Unbeknownst to most outsiders, Brazil also has a
large Japanese population—15 to 18 million. While Japanese and Brazilian cuisines
have not really fused, they are served together. It’s not uncommon to find sushi and
sashimi alongside barbecued meat served from an espeto or spit.

The most distinctive cuisine and culture can be found in the Bahia region of northern
Brazil, which is mainly populated by the descendants of African slaves. It’s from this
region that Brazil’s national dish, feijoada, is said to have come.

Feijoada is served every Saturday in most every restaurant in Brazil. It is much like
the French cassoulet—a rich, slow-cooked bean stew—but it’s made with black turtle
beans instead of white beans. The stew is traditionally cooked for three hours in a
clay pot. The feijoada is made with 15 cuts of pork, including smoked pork, sausages,
tongue and beef jerky. The dish is said to have first been cooked for the African
slaves that were brought to Brazil to work on plantations.

Feijoada is the only dish I know that includes an alcoholic drink to make it complete.
The drink is called caipirhina. The uniquely Brazilian concoction—is made with
cachaça, which is distilled from sugarcane, sugar and lime. You sip the caipirhina,
while you’re eating the feijoada.

It’s a wonderful, hearty dish that I hope you will try some day.

Tchau!

Click here for the feijoada recipe      Click here for the caipirhina recipe