Brazilians’ passion for Tupperware-like pots was born out of the habit of overcooking

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“Better to have more than not to have enough.” Who has never heard that phrase while preparing for a Sunday lunch? At the end of the year, then, dealing for days on end with leftover turkey and tender ham is a classic in the Brazilian family.

This habit of taking great care in the amount of food comes from afar and is so ingrained in our food culture that it gave rise to a whole delicious home recipe, based on reusing leftovers.

On top of that, it shaped our passion for plastic pots to organize them in the fridge.

Those who have do not like to lend, and those who borrow are reluctant to return, as the country duo Victor Gregório and Marco Aurélio sing in “Devolve as Tupperware da Minha Mãe” (in the same way, in the feminine, as it is also common to say) —if the love relationship ended, there is no business, need to send the pots back.

Plastic containers made especially for storing food in the refrigerator (reused ice cream or margarine containers are excluded from this conversation) are a relatively recent novelty in Brazil.

“Before that, people kept the leftovers on platters, covered by cloths on the stove. If they needed refrigeration, they went to the fridge in a deep dish, with another dish on top serving as a lid”, recalls culinary expert Bettina Orrico, 89, who became responsible for the revenue section of Claudia magazine in 1973.

Everything changed after 1976, the year in which the North American Tupperware arrived in the country. The pots, which had already been successful in the United States since the 1940s, were not sold in stores, but in afternoon meetings held by women’s groups.

The model was also imported. Any consumer could volunteer as a hostess and invite her friends to the convescote. While having coffee and cake, they watched the demonstrations conducted by a representative of the brand, always a woman.

Michi Kussuhara, 72, was part of the first team of Brazilian representatives, and remembers how jars with hermetic lids caused strangeness at that time.

“We had to put liquid in them, close them and shake them to make sure they didn’t leak. We offered them cookies that had been stored in boxes for weeks to show that they were still fresh, but sometimes one said to the other: ‘Do you believe it? You’ll see she bought it before she came here.'”

Tupperware containers ended up becoming so popular that they became a generic name for any plastic pot with a lid. On Youtube, they are the subject of tutorials that teach how to organize them in closets. Discontinued antique pots are advertised as vintage rarities on sites like Enjoei and Ebay.

Even restaurants have learned to take advantage of this passion for pots. Partner of Boato, in São Paulo, Maria Carolina Warzée packs food destined for delivery in reusable plastic pots, which can be incorporated into the household collection.

She invests heavily, more than R$ 3 per package, but guarantees that it is worth it. “The customers’ evaluation is very positive. They praise the quality of the deliveries and say that they continue to use the jars at home. I have several myself”, she confesses.

The experience is repeated among the clientele of the Adega Santiago group, which also includes the restaurants Taberna 474 and Arroz Malandro. Together, the six units in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro make 4,000 monthly deliveries.

“We did several packaging tests and chose the jars that improve the delivery experience. At the time, we didn’t even think about the issue of reuse, but it ended up gaining importance. Even we, the team, adopted it at home”, says Vanessa Vignati, responsible for the group marketing.

The Brazilian’s relationship with abundance at the table may be at the root of this serious and jealous relationship that we have established with our collection of pots.

Embrapa researcher Gustavo Porpino conducted a study on food waste in 2014, updated in 2018 and 2019, and found that food served in abundance, on generous platters, is seen as synonymous with hospitality.

“In Latin culture and among people from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, food signals wealth, receptivity and well-being”, he summarizes.

It was like that at the house of chef Ana Soares, from Pastifício Mesa III. In Guararapes, in the interior of São Paulo, the family of Italian origin did not regulate the amount of food.

“We always had the food for the visitor, even if no visitor was expected. But there was no waste, something considered a sin among immigrants. You have to scrape your plate, never serve more than you can eat”, he recalls.

The leftovers returned to the table, but never in the same format — rejecting reheated food is another common habit that Porpino recorded in the survey, carried out in lower-middle-class homes in the east zone of São Paulo and Itapoã, administrative region of the Federal District.

“At my house, recipes made from leftovers were always garnished and turned into other dishes”, says Ana, who declares herself a fan of bowls and soufflés.

“Eggs have the power to brighten up any leftovers. You beat the boiled chayote with egg cream, add parmesan and put it in the oven, it’s wonderful.”

Also part of the repertoire are the popular mexidinhos, which use leftover rice, vegetables, meat and whatever else is at hand.

The Panelinha website, by presenter Rita Lobo, has an entire section of recipes dedicated to them —you can turn leftover spaghetti into frittata, stale bread into salad, and yesterday’s beans into dumplings.

Leftovers can even have a chef’s signature. On the segment Sobrou pro Chef!, from the Cozinha Cozinha practical (GNT) program, Rita challenges famous chefs to create recipes from recycling ingredients —and goes even further, teaching to leave leftovers on purpose, thus advancing the preparation of the next meal.

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