{"id":315377,"date":"2026-04-22T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/?p=315377"},"modified":"2026-04-24T15:57:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:57:33","slug":"the-people-beyond-the-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/2026\/04\/22\/the-people-beyond-the-plate\/","title":{"rendered":"The people beyond the plate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

When people think about Brazilian cuisine, dishes like churrasco or feijoada often come to mind, national symbols that travel easily. Those who know a little more might think of the ants served at D.O.M<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 Alex Atala<\/strong>‘s starred restaurant in Sa\u00f5 Paulo \u2013 or of a\u00e7a\u00ed reframed as a superfood. What emerges is a cuisine reduced to a few dishes and an untamed forest, where ingredients are discovered and then circulate globally, while the people behind them rarely do. What if we looked not only at what is being eaten, but at who makes it possible.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chef Bel Coelho<\/a><\/strong> has spent much of the last decade moving through Brazil with that question in mind. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America<\/strong> and shaped by kitchens such as D.O.M.<\/strong> and El Celler de Can Roca<\/a><\/strong>, she returned to Brazil and began traveling across its biomes, working not only with ingredients, but with the people, territories, and relationships that sustain them. What began as a search for products became something else.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bel Coelho \u2013 credits Carol Quintanilha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was very focused on the ingredient, which is what chefs do,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I started to realize that this was not enough. You have to talk about who is behind it, who cultivates it, who transforms it, who keeps it alive. In the end, these are the people who sustain food systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shifting from the ingredient to the relationships behind it brings different people into view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ones who end up in front are the chefs, the influencers, the people who are in the media,\u201d she continues. \u201cAnd the people at the base, the ones producing, the ones in the territory, are completely invisible. But without them, none of this would exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That invisibility is not accidental. Researcher Patty Dur\u00e3es<\/a><\/strong>, who has spent more than two decades studying food cultures and their Afro-diasporic and Indigenous roots, points out that what is valued, and who is recognized, has long been shaped by dominant narratives. She says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe major discoveries and innovations in food have African and Indigenous roots. But this has been erased over time. What belonged to these peoples came to be taught as less noble, as impoverished, or as exotic. And this means that we do not recognize the origin of things, we do not give them proper credit, we do not understand where this knowledge comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If Bel\u2019s work exposes who is left outside the frame, Patty helps explain how that absence was produced. Together, their perspectives shift the focus away from ingredients and toward the relations behind them. This idea materialized in Tasting the Forest<\/strong>,<\/a><\/em> a long-term project developed collectively by Bel alongside illustrator Marina Aranha<\/strong>, journalist Janaina Fidalgo<\/strong>, ecologist Jer\u00f4nimo Villas-B\u00f4as<\/strong>, and with Patty herself as a consultant, and documented through images by photographers Carol Quintanilha<\/strong>, who also directs the documentary, and Lari Lopez<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patty Dur\u00e3es \u2013 credits Vitoria Leona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Kitchen of Francisca das Chagas, in the Rio Iriri Extractive Reserve \u2013 credits Carol Quintanilha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tasting the Forest<\/em> unfolds as a series of books and documentaries, each dedicated to one of Brazil’s six biomes: the Amazon, Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, Pampa and Pantanal. The project moves away from presenting ingredients as discoveries and instead situates them within the territories and relationships that hold them together. Producers are not merely named, but made present through narratives, images, and, increasingly, through the events that accompany the project. At public events, including COP30<\/strong> where the first book and documentary were launched, producers stood alongside chefs and researchers, speaking about their own work rather than being spoken for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bel Coelho describes a turning point in her journey: \u201cFlying over the Amazon was very striking,\u201d she says. \u201cFrom above, you see that immense expanse of green, the rivers that look like snakes, and you do not see the communities. You see the rivers, a few houses along the banks, but the forest seems empty. When you go down, enter the forest, and navigate the rivers, you realize that it is completely inhabited, not only by animals, but by people who live there, who live deeply tied to the environment. We imagine the forest from the city as if it were only vegetation and animals. But there is life happening everywhere. On the ground, in the trees, in the leaves, in the water. These are ways of life that we do not know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bel Coelho and Raimunda Rodrigues \u2013 credits Carol Quintanilha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Kitchen of Francisca das Chagas, in the Rio Iriri Extractive Reserve \u2013 credits Carol Quintanilha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Patty Dur\u00e3es \u2013 credits Nani Rodrigues<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The first Tasting the Forest<\/em> book, published by F\u00f3sforo Editora in 2025 in both Portuguese and English, focuses on the Amazon, one of the six biomes that the project will explore, weaving reflections on socio-biodiversity, producers\u2019 testimonies, ingredients, and recipes. At the end, a glossary lists names such as bacaba, murupi,<\/em> turu<\/em>, and dozens of other ingredients that remain unfamiliar even to me, a Brazilian. As Bel puts it, \u201cwe do not feed ourselves from our biodiversity,\u201d and she adds, \u201cthis is not only a cultural issue, it is an enormous environmental loss. Because if we ate from these systems, we would help keep them alive. We would be encouraging these foods to continue being cultivated, these practices to continue existing. Eating is also a way of conserving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we choose to eat has direct consequences on what continues to be produced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur supply chain is a political choice,\u201d Patty says. \u201cI choose who I buy from, and that has a direct impact on territories.\u201d This becomes visible in the trajectory of Vanildo Quaresma<\/a><\/strong>, one of the producers featured in the project, who has relied on a\u00e7a\u00ed to endure periods of hunger and now sees it becoming a monoculture in the Amazon. He is the president of Cofruta<\/a><\/strong> (Abaetetuba Fruit Growers Cooperative) and works to find alternatives for the more than 78 producers in the cooperative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, \u201cwhen we strengthen small-scale and family farming producers, we strengthen the environment and the community,\u201d Patty continues. \u201cThey maintain more diverse systems, they do not work with monoculture, they preserve the territory. And this also ensures that future generations have a reason to remain, to continue producing.\u201d Raimunda Rodrigues<\/strong>, also featured in the project and leader of the Brazil Nut processing mini-plant in the Iriri Resex, sees the climate crisis affecting the lives of 32 families in her community. She says that the ways traditional peoples live off the land are also a way of watching over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this sense, food cannot be reduced to what is on the plate.<\/mark> \u201cThere is no way to think about environmental preservation without cultural preservation,\u201d says Bel. \u201cBecause it is people who keep these systems alive. If you do not value these cultures, these ways of life, these forms of knowledge, you also cannot maintain the territories. Everything is connected.\u201d In practice, this takes shape in the work of Cristina Damasceno<\/strong>, another voice present in the project and vice-president of the Quilombola Association of Esp\u00edrito Santo de It\u00e1<\/a><\/strong>, who fought to keep the practice of making cassava flour from disappearing with the previous generation. In many of these contexts, women are at the center of these practices, among them Raimunda Rodrigues<\/strong>, Cristina Damasceno<\/strong>, and Irenilse Batista Souza<\/strong>, Chief of the Kumaruara Indigenous Territory<\/a>, a pioneer of female leadership in her community and an advocate for women’s empowerment. Says Bel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFood is feminine. The solution is feminine. When we move through these territories, we see many women in leadership positions, at the head of kitchens, organizing production, often in contexts of scarcity. There is an enormous capacity to solve problems, to distribute resources, to sustain these systems even with very little. And I keep thinking, if this abundance were in the hands of these women, what would they not do? Because they already do so much with so little. When we look at solidarity kitchens, school meals, hospitals, places where it is necessary to do a lot with very little, it is women who are there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And yet, this centrality rarely translates into visibility or power in the spaces where food is most valued. As Bel adds, \u201cIn fine dining, historically, there has been a movement to remove women from positions of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognition also shapes how value is assigned to food. \u201cWe need to bring this to the centre of the table, to the centre of the discussion,\u201d says Patty. \u201cWe place great value on what comes from outside. We like to say we are drinking champagne because it is French. That elevates what we are consuming. But we need to do the same with our own products as well. To say where the cheese comes from, where the cacha\u00e7a comes from, where the ingredient comes from. To bring this to the centre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Terra Indi\u0301gena Kumaruara \u2013 credits Carol Quintanilha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bel at Mercado Ver-o-Peso, in Bele\u0301m \u2013 credits Carol Quintanilha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Raimunda Rodrigues \u2013 credits Carol Quintanilha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bel Coelho at the Comunidade Espi\u0301rito Santo do Ita\u0301 \u2013 credits Carol Quintanilha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tempura of pimenta-de-cheiro<\/em> with shrimp and bacuri jelly \u2013 credits Raphael Criscuolo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Recognition, however, is only a starting point. \u201cBringing the names of producers onto packaging, showing the faces of these people, is part of a very important process,\u201d she continues. \u201cBut it cannot stop there. It needs to reach large suppliers, it needs to go beyond a small group. Because today it is still very easy for a small portion of the population to access these products, but most people cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the image of Brazilian food has often been shaped by what circulates more easily, then reassembling that image requires a slower, more situated attention \u2013 less concerned with discovery and more with continuity. \u201cWithout the farm, the city does not eat. Without the forest, the world does not breathe,\u201d says Patty. The sentence carries the weight of something both obvious and constantly ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To eat, in this context, is never a neutral act. It is a way of participating, consciously or not, in the maintenance or erosion of entire ways of life. This is the shift Bel and Patty point toward. Not a new ingredient, but a different way of seeing. One that refuses to separate food from the people behind it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When people think about Brazilian cuisine, dishes like churrasco or feijoada often come to mind, national symbols that travel easily. Those who know a little more might think of the ants served at D.O.M \u2013 Alex Atala‘s starred restaurant in Sa\u00f5 Paulo \u2013 or of a\u00e7a\u00ed reframed as a superfood. What emerges is a cuisine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":315421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"condensed-double-column","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"selected_color":"","palette":"{\"media_id\":315421,\"colors\":[[38,41,13],[197,186,153],[115,114,67],[135,164,78],[144,144,143]],\"selected\":\"rgb(135, 164, 78)\",\"gradients\":{\"a1\":[\"#faffe5\",\"#f2ffd1\",\"#ccef85\",\"#b0d36d\",\"#95b754\",\"#7c9b3d\",\"#638125\",\"#374e00\",\"#1c2a00\",\"#141f00\",\"#0b1300\"],\"a2\":[\"#faffe5\",\"#f5fddc\",\"#dee6c6\",\"#c2caab\",\"#a6af91\",\"#8c9477\",\"#727a5f\",\"#424a32\",\"#212813\",\"#171e0a\",\"#0d1303\"],\"a3\":[\"#f2fffc\",\"#e4fffa\",\"#bcece4\",\"#a0d0c8\",\"#86b4ad\",\"#6b9993\",\"#527f79\",\"#1f4e49\",\"#002b27\",\"#00201d\",\"#001412\"],\"n1\":[\"#fefcf4\",\"#fbf9f1\",\"#e4e3db\",\"#c7c7bf\",\"#acaba4\",\"#91918a\",\"#777771\",\"#464742\",\"#252621\",\"#1b1c17\",\"#10110d\"],\"n2\":[\"#fcfeed\",\"#f9fbea\",\"#e2e4d4\",\"#c6c8b9\",\"#aaad9e\",\"#8f9284\",\"#76786b\",\"#45483d\",\"#24271d\",\"#1a1d13\",\"#0f1209\"],\"error\":[\"#fffbff\",\"#fff8f7\",\"#ffdad6\",\"#ffb4ab\",\"#ff897d\",\"#ff5449\",\"#de3730\",\"#93000a\",\"#540003\",\"#410002\",\"#2d0001\"]}}","authors":"[{\"role\":\"Words by\",\"related\":[],\"title\":\"Gabriella Iaconelli Bruno \",\"unique_id\":\"MTc3NjY4OTg3NTEzOV9lcmxod3plOTRwaV8wLjU2MTIxMTMzNjkxOTAzOA==\"},{\"role\":\"Photo courtesy\",\"related\":[],\"title\":\"\",\"unique_id\":\"MTc3NjY4OTg3NTkwOF9mb2R0cXQ5bzRyNF8wLjg4ODY1NDk0NTU1MDM5NTc=\"}]","magazine_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1612],"tags":[2422,2479],"location":[1804,1808,183],"class_list":["post-315377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","tag-brazilian-cuisine","tag-amazzonia","location-world","location-brazil","location-mondo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315377"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318152,"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315377\/revisions\/318152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315377"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookinc.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=315377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}