Host Katie Hamilton Shaffer is joined by Brazilian native, Chef Almir Da Fonseca as he educates us on the plentiful and beautiful cuisine and unique ingredients Brazil has to offer. Chef also leads us on a journey sharing his passion for culinary arts alongside his trips to his home country Brazil to establish his culinary book that took over 30 years to create.
ABOUT COOKING CULTURE: Food is a common bond. A shared necessity and delight, it’s as key to art as it is to life. History has continued to document our need to nourish. From still life paintings to cult TV, food sustains many of our great cultural works and has a way of bringing people together that other life experiences may not. It can persuade, romance, celebrate and comfort. Cooking is a culture.
ABOUT ALMIR DA FONSECA:
Chef Almir Da Fonseca has long understood that natural, locally grown, whole food products create more than just “fine flavors” and good health. They preserve the human communities around us, ensure future access to the highest quality ingredients while preserving a healthy environment for all of us. Sourcing from local farms also helps preserve heritage and heirloom varietals that have been selected for hundreds years for their astounding flavors – not just the ability to be shipped thousands of miles. While one of Almir’s goals was to introduce America to the cuisines of his native land, his arrival has coincided with American’s growing concern with “right eating.”
What is “avant garde” in America’s cuisine today is often just the way food was served in Brazil as a natural way of life. Thus, Chef Almir’s approach is neither trendy or experimental, it’s a natural extension of the cooking wisdom he has grown up with – and has since developed into to a high art form.
