Guia Cultural da Costa Verde

Paraty • Paraty

ACADEMIA DE COZINHA & OUTROS PRAZERES

An unforgettable culinary lesson

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This incredible cultural experience’s proposal is to provide people with a personal experience of dining at home, by assisting in the preparation of a menu under the guidance of a professional chef as if cooking in the home of friends. In this regard, the affable couple and hosts Yara and Richard Roberts have the gift of making everybody feel very much at home.

Yara is a famous chef, a native of Minas Gerais who lived in the United States, Paris and Mexico and who enjoyed a meteoric career: with a degree from the former country and having featured in a TV culinary program, she gave lessons in several universities in Brazil and overseas, and also held presentations, consultancies and a number of interviews.

Richard is a Parisian gentleman raised in New York, his wife’s right-hand man and number one fan and who assists by chaperoning their guests and expertly serving the caipirinhas. Incidentally, it is customary to start the program with a practical lesson on tips and detailed explanations of how the best caipirinhas are made!

The Academy was organized in 2003 and its theme was cooking from Bahia. In addition to gratifying, the activity carried out by this couple contributes a great deal to the history of Brazilian cookery. In 2009 they published the beautiful Brazilian Table, a book in English full of photos and divine recipes, now in its third edition. Both husband and wife preserve a wealth of knowledge and usually supplement their lessons with details on the culture of each dish or ingredient.

A number of options are offered in the menu regarding recipes from different origins and nationalities – Brazilian, Indian, African, Portuguese, Caiçara – and ingredients from various regions in Brazil, such as palm oil and coconut milk from Bahia or the local cachaça. The Cardápio do Rei – the king’s menu – for example is a fusion of French, Portuguese and African cultures.

A lesson may last more or less two hours of preparations in the kitchen, which precedes serving a full dinner: appetizer, main course, salad and dessert, served with Chilean or Argentinean wines. This bountiful dinner is served on an elegantly decorated table with fantastic china specific for each theme. Conversation flows freely during the meal, either in Portuguese, English, French or Spanish, or a combination of these languages. The “student guests” are usually formed by two-thirds of foreigners and one-third of Brazilians, favoring this linguistic diversity. Children are also very welcome and are given their caps and aprons just like the grown-ups.

Reservations should preferably be scheduled, yet depending on the number of available places, they can be made on the day before or by noon on the day of the dinner. This evening event goes from 8 pm to 12 midnight and prices are advised on request. Groups should comprise from two to not more than 14 persons, who will certainly attend a differentiated and unforgettable experience in this singular school that does justice to its name.

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