Chefs bring cultural heritage to Taste SP’s second Saturday classes

In addition to the sun with a mild temperature, which contrasted with the freezing days of last week, this Saturday’s Taste SP (1st) brought new classes from chefs with a focus on each person’s cultural heritage and restaurants that had not yet entered the event circuit. .

Pernambuco chef Dona Carmem Virgínia, from Altar Cozinha Ancestral, opened the session, at 1:30 pm, in the space dedicated to dishes prepared over charcoal. For the first time at the festival, she taught octopus rice.

The dish was the first that Virgínia prepared on her program Uma Senhora Panela, on GNT. The recipe brought to São Paulo was similar to the one on TV, except for the pan. Here she used an iron one; in Recife, where she records the program, she usually uses a clay one.

While frying garlic, onion and rice, the chef explained why she calls her restaurant Ancestral Kitchen. The term, which went through a brand usage imbroglio, appears in the name of Altar in the headquarters in the Northeast, opened ten years ago, and in the São Paulo branch, which turned one in 2024.

It’s a way to highlight African heritage, he told the students. Much of what she prepares in her dishes comes from what she learned from her grandmother.

In the Taste pan, the chef mixed red wine, peeled tomatoes and broth with her own seasonings. The octopus, pressure cooked with spices such as bay leaves and cinnamon, was grilled before being cut into small slices and placed over the rice.

Another popular session was that of chef Rodrigo Oliveira, from Mocotó. He was scheduled to teach about tapioca and cocada at 6pm. Five hours before, the public was already asking the organization if it was possible to leave their name on the list — it was only possible to schedule the class half an hour before it started.

Outside of the outdoor classes, there were also gastronomy demonstrations. In the tent of the Japanese restaurant Aizomê, adorned with red balloons and t-shirts with fish designs, chef Telma Shiraishi led the opening ceremony of a 70 kg tuna, used as an ingredient this weekend at Taste.

It took three people to carry the maguro, the Japanese name for this type of fish. “It’s a Japanese tradition to cut the whole tuna in front of an audience as a way to open the events”, says the chef, while her team used different knives and a hammer to slice the fish, caught off the coast of Rio Grande do Norte.

The fish was used to prepare tekkadon (R$55), a rice with seaweed and roe, and chumaki (R$55), a combination of sushi stuffed with tuna, cucumber and pickled turnip. Other parts, such as the head, are not discarded, but become an ingredient in soups or are prepared on the grill.

One of the news of the day was Mapu, a Taiwanese food restaurant from the same owners as Aiô, which was included in the official selection of restaurants published by the Michelin guide at the end of May.

A sales success, the mini turnip cake bao (R$45 for two pieces), a steamed bun, was filled with the vegetable with oyster sauce and mayonnaise. For the same price, another version of the dish was available, with shredded pork and peanut farofa.

For Taste, Mapu brought an exclusive dish, ji rou fan (R$ 30). It’s rice covered in shredded chicken, onion, cucumber pickles and cilantro.

The event continues on Sunday (2) and next week. A Sheet, a partner of the organization, gives its subscribers a 20% discount on admission. The newspaper also has a booth with activities and giveaways.