Manuelle Ferraz

Coming Up

Brazilian inland cooking shows up in Manuelle Ferraz’s work as a discipline of value: scarcity makes certain ingredients, combinations, and methods matter more. At A Baianeira in São Paulo, that logic reads plainly in her own line — “Our gastronomy culture is very rich. The scarcity of the Brazilian inland makes for preciousness and mixture.” It is a clear statement of craft priorities: not abundance for its own sake, but selection, balance, and attention to what a place gives. Training in Belo Horizonte and Scotland gave Manuelle Ferraz two different frameworks to work from. One sits close to Brazilian ground and regional memory; the other broadens the technical field. The point is not a blended style for display, but a working vocabulary that can hold local tradition and outside perspective without collapsing either one. That range moved into leadership when Manuelle Ferraz became mentora at The Taste Brasil. The role places her on the teaching side of the trade, where judgment matters as much as execution. It also marks the moment when a developed point of view became legible to others, not as theory, but as practice that could be passed on. The scope of her current work extends across A Baianeira and Winzerhof Stahl. Manuelle Ferraz holds both titles at once, and the important fact is not scale but continuity: the same standards travel with her between kitchens. That kind of movement depends on a clear internal rule set, one that can carry a cook through different rooms without changing the underlying aim.

Where They Are Now

At A Baianeira, Manuelle Ferraz frames her work in terms of stewardship: “Everything I want is to be a guardian of our culture.” In trade terms, that means keeping methods, memory, and local identity active in the food itself. Preservation here is not archival. It is daily kitchen work, carried through service, repetition, and attention to what needs protecting. Her own self-description sets the register for the cooking as well: “I do not try to make something I am not. I am a girl from the countryside, popular, and I am only trying to be coherent with what I am.” Coherence is the operative word. The food is presented as an extension of lived background rather than performance, with the point being fidelity to origin and a clear line between identity and plate.

Signature

Manuelle's signature dishes include galinhada, turkey neck, pumpkin with gumbo, and pork suã. Read together, they point to a kitchen that works with substance, heat, and a direct relationship to regional memory. The lineup suggests food built from familiar forms and handled with discipline, where recognition comes from clarity rather than embellishment.

In Their Words “Our gastronomy culture is very rich. The scarcity of the Brazilian inland makes for preciousness and mixture.” “For me, things work only if they work for my mother, back there in Almenara.”