Amazon Locavore: Meet The Man Putting Brazilian Food On The Map
He was named one of the most influential people by Time magazine this past year.
Now Alex Atala, whose restaurant, D.O.M., is ranked among the top 10 in the world, is putting a new kind of Brazilian food on the map.
Atala has a graying beard, tattoos and openly jokes about his days as a wild youth experimenting with drugs. He grew up in gray Sao Paulo and came to the culinary world almost by mistake: He needed to extend his visa in Belgium when he was backpacking, so he enrolled in a cooking class.
We meet at his restaurant, D.O.M., which stands for Deo Optimo Maximo — or "To God, most good, most great" — which he opened in 1999 in Sao Paulo.
Back then, he says, "lots of people didn't recognize D.O.M. as a Brazilian cuisine. Lots of people didn't believe."
But he's made converts out of his fiercest critics: These days, Alex Atala is widely regarded as the most accomplished chef in Latin America.
The Salt
What's For Dinner? Try Brazilian