childhood, the food she learned from her grandmother and her nanny. leonardo paixao: so when you are a kid here, your family obligates you to eat jiló. anthony: why? marise rache: because i think i think it was to teach children to eat different flavors, different sensations. anthony: leo is a friend of bruna s and of marise and denise rache owners of d artagnan, one of the first ambitious fine-dining restaurants in belo to be owned and operated by women. was it particularly hard as women starting in the business 20 years ago? marise rache: when we began, there wasn t a lot of women chefs. and we decided to open a restaurant because we like to cook together. denise rache: i think nobody trusted us. we have many friends and they have restaurants, they are chefs, and they said okay, it s a hobby. okay, let them play a little bit.
anthony: you have good products, right? leonardo paixao: yeah. anthony: so why not use them? leonardo paixao: yeah. anthony: bar da lora is named after its owner, also known as the blonde, who is the first woman to run a bar in the mercado central. it s a place to order a cold beer, wedge yourself shoulder-to-shoulder into a small table, and order this. you want this by the way. this place is famous for leonardo paixao: this place is famous for liver with jiló. jiló is very important to us. it s like an eggplant, but it s green and you need to eat it while it s still green, because if it ripens, it gets so bitter you can t eat it. anthony: all the food here is like if you if you bite too far into the pit, it stabs you. if you if you eat it at the wrong time it poisons you. leonardo paixao: uh, dangerous stuff, huh? anthony: lyon has paul bocuse. mineas has chef ivo faria, owner of vecchio sogno. he s the godfather of mineria cuisine and ingredients. [ ivo fari
have restaurants, they are chefs, and they said okay, it s a hobby. okay, let them play a little bit. this won t last. and here we are. anthony: i mean, in the in the states and europe, it was women cooked at home. in restaurants, however, this was man s work. denise rache: obviously they would the ones that cooked there were men. but they learned all everything they learned was from their mothers. leonardo paixao: the techniques and everything passed through the generations of women, so that that s what it s all about here i think with bruna. anthony: bruna makes a point of hiring women, and only women, to work in her restaurants, particularly black women who she feels are the central if largely unacknowledged figures in minera culinary culture for hundreds of years. hello. hi. easy to find women cooks or hard? [ bruna speaking portuguese ]
emotional about it, they fell in love with it and they except it very well. anthony: cheers, by the way. leonardo paixao: cheers. ivo faria da costa: cheers. [ ivo faria da costa speaking portuguese ] anthony: mineas is a central state, land-locked. you want to hit the beach? that s a seven-hour bus ride to rio. that, or you come here beach station. no beach? hire a water truck. economy in the shitter? turn up the music and dance. it s known here as the little slippery way. you adapt, you survive, no matter what, you have a good time and you don t go at it alone.
anthony: at the end of a long night, decisions good and bad, friends old and new, a night spent playing or a night spent working, all across the world wherever cooks stumble out of work late, there s a place like this nono. one of the few places that s open all night, serving the kind of thing that enlighten night-dwellers everywhere want and need, like mocoto. gentleman. leonardo paixao: hey, tony. nice to see you again. anthony: it s the city that never sleeps 24-hour mocoto, right? leonardo paixao: this place is very democratic because, like, everybody comes. late at night, taxi drivers, hookers, and cooks because anthony: yeah, why is it that like hookers and cooks are always welcomed at the same place, you know? it s like the same social standing. i m ready, man, i am hungry. i ve had nothing to eat all day. leonardo paixao: yeah? anthony: i am starving. anthony: mocoto is the ultimate in broke-ass, dunk-ass, peasant food.