Food to Create New Beginnings

Cooking is more than just reproducing a recipe with techniques and precision — it’s a way of relating to the world through understanding traditions, culture, and history. Gastronomy can play a role in overcoming adversity.

In 2004, during my first visit to a favela — an unregulated hillside town in Brazil — I was inspired by the perseverance of young people who were constantly searching for opportunities to further their development. A few years later I founded Gastromotiva, with the belief that gastronomy has the power to connect people and begin change in communities. Our project was first implemented in a vulnerable community in São Paulo. We taught students the potential, power, and responsibility that comes with learning about culinary culture.