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
anthony: oh yeah, oh yeah. leonardo paixao: if you go to her place, 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 heart of mineas. it s the place where everybody shops, including chefs like leo, who are focused on giving mineiras products the attention they deserve. this is a country where there is a lot of fruit that i ve never seen outside of brazil. leonardo paixao: yeah. anthony: a lot of i
and if you split the words, it means ass face. seriously. anthony: ass face? leonardo paixao: it s actually exactly the words. anthony: so how was the how was your dinner tonight? were you were you busy? leonardo paixao: you know what happened tonight? it came like three clients. a lady with her husband and her chef. and she said, oh, this is my chef. he is going to eat and me and my husband are not because we re eating special food for detox. we re full of restrictions and we brought we brought our soup, so if you can please heat my soup for me because detoxing. anthony: detoxing from what? what are you, a heroin addict? i mean, go home and do some more heroin. thank you, guys. group: thank you, tony. anthony: to minas. there s always somewhere that cooks come from. usually it s the ass-end of a country.
yard because it grew all around. anthony: how do you cook it? leonardo paixao: just boil it like for 15 seconds with water and a little butter. it s meaty, it s got a meat-like chew on it, resist a bit and then it breaks down like meat. [ man speaking portuguese ] leonardo paixao: i went to france to study culinary arts, and i graduated in medicine and i just loved so much the work. and then i came back and i thought, yeah, i m gonna, like, cook french food here. i started glouton to be a french restaurant, but it s impossible to have good french products here in brazil. so i started to use the products from the region. the flavor of mineria cuisine is so intense, and then we are raised eating that. anthony: right. leonardo paixao: that s such a new gastronomy.
anthony: now wait a minute. is this based on the quality of the dishes or is this a philosophical decision to just hire other women? [ bruna speaking portuguese ] anthony: turkey neck braised with butter and garlic, served in white beans topped with kale and pork belly. marise rache: i think this is neck. leonardo paixao: yes, turkey neck. marise rache: turkey neck. anthony: turkey neck. cool. marise rache: with her grandmother s knife. [ laughs ] anthony: ah, with what s left of it. what it used to be like this?