As a child growing up in Rio, I saw Barra da Tijuca go from deserted to one of the most developed neighbourhoods in town.
To enter Barra, you have to drive through Rocinha, the largest favela (shanty town) of Brazil. I grew up just a few minutes away, but I never connected with this world - so close to my own home yet so far away from the world I grew up in. Until the day I decided to visit, when my whole perspective of Rio changed.
I expected that our societies would have nothing to do with each other, but in Rio links between different people are made every day, at every moment, through sun and landscape, music and sports, but most importantly through food. Food can be a class divider, but in Rio it is a class connector, a common ground, an equaliser - through flavour.