Black chefs claim their place in the gastronomy of Rio de Janeiro

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From a small restaurant at the end of an alley, there is a sweet aroma of spices. Stuffed with pork, chicken or shrimp, dim sum, dumplings typical of Cantonese cuisine, are slowly steamed.

We are not in Hong Kong, but in Rio de Janeiro. And the chef is a black man, from Rio de Janeiro.

“Many people asked: where is the Chinese chef?”, jokes Vladimir Reis, 38, who opened Dim Sum Rio almost two years ago, in Largo do Machado, south of Rio.

“I am also asked why I make Asian cuisine and not African or Brazilian. People are free to do what they want and like, it is not because of the color of their skin, or what city or country they come from that they will have to do it alone that,” he adds.

This strong man, with thin shoulder-length dreadlocks, is having a good time: his dim sum sell like hot cakes and he has just been awarded best chef at the Black Gastronomy Award.

The award, whose first edition was held at the end of November in Rio, honored the best black professionals in the sector, in various categories, from waiters to sommeliers, including kitchen assistants and pastry chefs.

“It has so much beautiful history, it’s past time to recognize these talents through an award. These people are not recognized in the media”, says Breno Cruz, professor of gastronomy at UFRJ who created the award.

white universe

The award for best restaurant went to Afro Gourmet, owned by Dandara Batista, 37, which serves African food in Grajaú, in the northern part of Rio, near Andaraí, where she grew up.

In the small kitchen of his restaurant, which opened in 2018, he prepares “Hausa rice”, a dish of Nigerian origin with shrimp, dried meat and a sauce that mixes coconut milk and palm oil.

The menu also offers Senegalese mafé and South African chakalaka, among other delicacies from the most diverse African countries, always identifying the country of origin with a little flag next to the name of the dish.

“I’ve always had a very strong connection with Bahian cuisine”, where his paternal family comes from. “I researched a little more and saw this strong influence of African cuisine,” she explains.

Dandara Batista has been cooking since she was a child, but for a long time she didn’t consider this a professional option: “gastronomy has always been closely linked to a white universe, so I didn’t see myself there much”.

But, in the end, he took that leap four years ago, after taking a gastronomy course, in which he missed a grid dedicated to African cuisine. He thought he learned dishes from “countries so far away” from Brazil.

And then, with his years of experience as a journalist, he went to the origins in search of information, with trips to Angola, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe.

no reference

Like Dandara Batista, the trajectory of Vladimir Reis was also marked by a trip to Singapore. “When I saw dim sum for the first time, I thought it was wonderful, beautiful, delicate. I immediately said: they don’t have it in Rio de Janeiro”, he recalls.

He adds his personal touch, using cassava and palm oil. At Dim Sum Rio, plates are decorated with edible flowers and green cabbage-based ‘tuiles’.

Vladimir Reis had previously worked in several restaurants, without ever rising to the rank of chef.

He says that, despite having a “very good resume”, in hiring interviews, white colleagues with less experience ended up being selected.

“They wanted me to be either a kitchen help or a low-level cook all the time,” says this man who grew up in a favela in Santa Teresa, in central Rio.

Blacks and browns represent about 54% of the Brazilian population, but occupy less than 30% of positions of responsibility in companies.

“Incredible as it may seem, I only saw black chefs in reality shows abroad. I was happy to see that, but here, there was no reference at all”, he says. “I think the job market is a little more open […] But there is still racism ingrained like a mess that you have to clean up little by little.”

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