Vanessa Sinfronio is a 36-year-old Brazilian chef. For 16 years he has been working in the kitchen, from hospitals to industrial and restaurants. He now teaches classes and works as a professional chef. Her inspiration to enter the world of cooking was her grandmother.
Photo: Vanessa Sinfronio
Mariano Pisani: How did your grandmother inspire you?
Vanessa Sinfronio: She was also a great chef. I helped make food to collect material to build the church and in my house they made food on holidays. I started working in the kitchen and discovered that it was my passion, I worked in another profession and felt like a fish out of water. I returned to the kitchen where I find myself and I fall more and more in love with my profession.
MP: What else about cooking makes you have this passion?
VS: Being a black woman, never a profession where machismo still exists and it is shown that women go to the plate, to the fryer and to the stove. I am an industrial kitchen cook who works in the boiler, in the oven and I spend 6 hours on the grill.
MP: Besides that, is there anything else difficult in the kitchen?
VS: Yes, the lack of a union that fights for our rights, the low salaries and the lack of resources.
MP: We talk about the bad things about cooking, but there are also good things. Which are them?
VS: Learning, working as a team, getting to know new cultures and flavors, this is what gastronomy offers on a plate.
Photo: Vanessa Sinfronio
MP: What is your favorite dish to make and why?
VS: There are many, they are all special to me. But the dish that made me happiest was making feijoada in the favela house in the tilde kitchen where I am a part, seeing people enter the house saying that the smell is in the street and people entered the house through the aroma that was felt.
MP: So aroma is important during dishes, right?
VS: Yes. Awaken the desire to eat, remember a good memory. Emotional food has these elements that awaken a good feeling in people.
MP: What is the best feeling that food can leave you?
VS: A mixture of feelings, love, happiness, pleasure and other feelings.
MP: If you had the opportunity to create a restaurant, what food would it be and why?
VS: Loving food, a place that reminds me of lunch at grandma's house, an aunt's snack and mom's dessert.
MP: It has to be representative, right?
VS: Yes, each chef has a distinctive cooking line.
Photo: Vanessa Sinfronio
MP: And where would the restaurant be?
VS: A place with many trees away from the stress of the city. A place to connect with people at the table, reminiscent of a family trip, in grandma's backyard.
MP: Are some awards like the Michelin important? Because?
VS: Yes, they are important, to have international recognition.
MP: Would it be an achievement to have this recognition? And because?
VS: Yes, it opens many doors for you to know that you are qualified and to be remembered for your excellent service because it is not just the kitchen and the entire team, they have to be synchronized and know how to lead.
MP: Speaking of recognition, what's the best recognition you've had?
VS: When I see that the plates come back empty and they ask me if I can have more. I also had recognition from Sebrae, 3rd place in Abrachef.
Comments