Skip to main content

Brazilian chef Alex Atala launches a book on the history of cassava in Brazil - Mandioca: Manihot utilissima Pohl.

  • Published on February 9, 2022

The primary representative of Brazilian food tradition, cassava, in this book earns all the recognition it deserves from the hands of the most excellent Brazilian chef: Alex Atala.

It is not just a cookbook: the work brings historical material, illustrations, period photos, unique records of communities from North to South of Brazil in whose daily life cassava is an inevitable and inexorable presence.

Woman strength

Alex Atala's book also presents women who own swiddens to grow manioc. He reinforces the importance of women throughout this cycle and explains how they work together and take turns looking after each other's lands.

This book is a genuine treatise on one of the most popular foods in Brazil. Cassava is present from north to south of the country, being cultivated both in the indigenous lands of the Amazon and in the colonial interior of Santa Catarina. It is part of our history and geography, of our economy and politics, going through centuries of colonization and facing the industrialization of our times with impetus and resistance.

Bringing together researchers, chroniclers, cooks, indigenous people, and photographers, Atala developed a project that values ​​the versatility of cassava in Brazilian cuisine and shows how, from north to south of the country, cassava resists and remains as sustenance and food for those who worked and work for make Brazil a nation.

The book starts by describing indigenous uses and customs, providing an overview of the ways of planting, growing, processing, and preparing cassava, showing that both the root and its by-products remain firm in the composition of all kinds of Brazilian families' meals. Also, it emphasizes the role of women throughout this cycle. When unfolding in fine, thick, white, yellow flours, gums, sprinkles, cauins and tucupis, cassava fills every Brazilian table, whether at home or in the most refined restaurants.

Written by many hands, the book addresses all aspects of the traditional manioc culture in a project that values ​​the diversity and versatility of this root, forming a unique record of the ways and customs that make manioc the queen of Brazil. The book also describes Alex Atala and his team's studies to transform cassava into unique preparations, served on his menu. Finally, the work brings together the most emblematic recipes of some of the most renowned chefs in the country.

 

Alex Atala is a chef and owner of Dalva e Dito and D.O.M. In 2021, he was elected the 8th best chef in the world by "The Best Chef Awards," being the best-placed Brazilian in the list that annually lists the 100 best professionals in the world's gastronomy. His DOM restaurant was already considered the 6th best restaurant globally and the best in South America by the "World's 50 Best Restaurants" in 2013. Also, in 2013 he created the Instituto ATÁ together with a multidisciplinary team that brings together photographers, business people, publicists, anthropologists, and journalists. The project aims to bring together knowledge and eating, eating and cooking, cooking and production, producing nature, strengthening this production chain, and valuing small producers throughout the country.

Images

External source(s)

More on this

You might also be Interested in