Sustainability is gone. Now is the time for regeneration!
According to Brazilian chef Alex Atala and writer and food curator, Andrea Petrini, Manoella Buffara Ramos, or Manu, put the South Brazilian city of Curitiba, on the world gastronomic map. Manu was listed number 21 in The Best Chef Awards and chef & owner of restaurant number 49, Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants (both in 2021), a juror since 2019 of the Basque Culinary Center, and one of the stars of the last four versions of the Gelinaz chefs’ collective. Opened in January 2011, Manu Restaurant is the first in Brazil headed up by a woman chef to serve only a tasting menu. Manu Restaurant serves 20 people per night and is in tune with cutting-edge culinary trends, working with fresh, seasonal ingredients, 60 % being plant-based. Manu knows each ingredient, as well as each person who supplies them, 80% of whom live within a 300 km radius from the restaurant. In October 2022, Manu will open her second restaurant, Ella, in New York.
Manu Buffara has been involved in sustainability actions aimed at causes such as preserving native Brazilian bees, incentivising young producers not to abandon the areas of fishing and agriculture in Paraná, and Urban Gardens, encouraging the plantation of vegetables in vacant lots around Curitiba. In 2020 she created Manu Buffara Institute, responsible for various programs including the annual event, Alimenta Curitiba which distributes food and holds educational and social inclusion events in the more needy areas of Curitiba. She is involved with Mulheres do Bem, a group of women chefs who serve 400 lunches to street dwellers once