leonardo paixao: we re getting to pequi season now. anthony: oh, yeah. leonardo paixao: and people get, like, overwhelmed by the just like they eat it like anthony: every day. leonardo paixao: every day. anthony: the infamous pequi, loved and hated in equal measure. it s described by both camps as tasting sweaty or like a barnyard. and if you bite too deep, you get a mouthful of hundreds of nano-spikes requiring professional extraction. and if you dig into the pit, big problem. leonardo paixao: big problem. anthony: it s just this thin layer on the outside. leonardo paixao: thin layer. and it s so, so strong. leonardo paixao: our vegetables she s my supplier. so this is taioba, this big tropical leaf here. anthony: this is the kind of fundamental mineria ingredient you didn t find in restaurants here until recently. leonardo paixao: and it s like it is part of like the forgotten vegetables. they used to weed it out of the
their products. but here, let s make the same technique but with our products. we have started saying, listen, this is good. put in your restaurant. pequi is good. they were ashamed with pequi. anthony: this attachment to the idea that french food and italian food will always be more valuable than your own thing. it s it s, uh, ridiculous concept. eduardo maya: we menieros, we don t talk much. we don t go on the top of our mountain and start to just spread the word that we have good food. we are very quiet people. you have to discover us, but we have the best.
we have started saying, listen, this is good. put in your restaurant. pequi is good. they were ashamed with pequi. anthony: this attachment to the idea that french food and italian food will always be more valuable than your own thing. it s it s a ridiculous concept. eduardo maya: we menieros, we don t talk much. we don t go on the top of our mountain and start to just spread the word that we have good food. we are very quiet people. you have to discover us, but we have the best.
get, like, overwhelmed by the just like they eat it like anthony: every day. leonardo paixao: every day. anthony: the infamous pequi, loved and hated in equal measure. it s described by both camps as tasting sweaty or like a barnyard. and if you bite too deep, you get a mouthful of hundreds of nano-spikes requiring professional extraction. and if you dig into the pit, big problem. leonardo paixao: big problem. anthony: it s just this thin layer on the outside. leonardo paixao: thin layer. and it s so, so strong. leonardo paixao: our vegetables she s my supplier. so this is taioba, this big tropical leaf here. anthony: this is the kind of fundamental mineria ingredient you didn t find in restaurants here until recently. leonardo paixao: and it s like it is part of like the forgotten vegetables. they used to weed it out of the yard because it grew all around. anthony: how do you cook it?
i ve been told time and again, this is where the best chefs come from. the question is, why don t you hear that outside of brazil? why hasn t the cuisine of minas caught on worldwide? leonardo paixao: the pots here are made up of chalkstone. uh my my grandmother still cooks in them. anthony: oh yeah, oh yeah. leonardo paixao: if you go to heplace, you got a lot of those. anthony: chef leo paixao is also asking that question. born and raised here, he grew up cooking traditional mineira cuisine and went on to study in france under the likes of joel robuchon. now he s back with his own place glouton. leonardo paixao: so we are up at the central market at bello horizonte. mineas gerais is a central state and we share with every other state around. it s very democratic up here. uh, the people come here they can have a haircut, they can buy like living chicken or good cheese from france. anthony: if mineas is the heart of brazilian cooking, then the mercado central is the h