The first time I tasted Helena Rizzo’s food was at Paladar Cozinha do Brasil. She was demonstrating her super sophisticated version of feijoada and I was so intrigued by the droplets of concentrated feijoada she had created by boiling the beans with the meat then sieving them to have a very smooth, very soft purée which she dropped in tiny spoonfuls into a solution to produce ‘jellified’ droplets — a process called spherification I think — that I had to have a taste. So, Danilo who was translating for me and I decided to sneak a taste where they were photographing the chefs’ dishes. The feijoada droplets were sensational, bursting into the mouth to release the most exquisite silky purée that had an unmistakable taste of traditional feijoada. Absolutely fabulous. And as luck would have it, lovely Ilan Kow and Luiz Americo Camargo who were our hosts at Paladar invited me to dinner at Mani to taste more of Helena’s cooking.

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