Alda Maria Talavera Campos

Alda Maria Talavera Campos is an eighth-generation Portuguese sweet maker, or doceira, as we say in Portuguese. She was born in Pelotas, a city in the state of Rio Grande do Sul with a reputation built upon Portuguese sweets. From the time she was a toddler, she remembers nothing but baking and watching her mother and grandmother produce sweets such as compotes, preserved fruit and all kinds of egg yolk-based custards.

Alda got married at a very young age and had three kids, but soon found herself divorced with a family to support all by herself. ‘I raised my kids making sweets,’ Alda told me. She moved to Porto Alegre (the capital of that state) and had no trouble finding a job as a doceira. Years later, Alda met and fell in love with a young carioca musician, who showed her Rio and its major Portuguese influence. She then moved to Rio and opened her store in 2003. Alda’s two daughters, Simone and Liliana - the ninth generation - are already in the kitchen helping their mother grow the business. And then there is Laura, Liliana’s two-year-old daughter, whose love for baking Portuguese sweets is clearly in her blood.