Picanha, cheese bread, tutu de feijão and vatapá. This is not a list of an unusual (but tasty) lunch, but rather some of the Brazilian dishes that have gained prominence abroad according to rankings in the online guide Taste Atlas. The website organizes several types of lists, and in the one hundred best dishes in the world, the traditional Brazilian barbecue came first among the 100, with a score of 4.75 stars.
According to Taste Atlas, the ranking in question was created considering just over 10,900 dishes that received around 271,800 valid votes with a maximum score of 5. And Brazil occupies other places on this same list. Vatapá from Bahia, for example, appears in 16th place; the Escondidinho, popular throughout the country and, mainly, in the Northeast region, comes in 58th; The very popular tutu de feijão from Minas Gerais, also very popular in Goiás, comes in 93rd out of almost 11 thousand competitors.
For Embratur’s Culture and Gastronomy coordinator, Ana Paula Jacques, Brazil’s presence in the guide’s rankings is a sign that foreign tourists value the ingredients of Brazilian cuisine. “It’s good to see Brazilian gastronomy gaining ground around the world through our traditional dishes. This is a sign that foreign tourists value our ingredients, our techniques, and ways of making things,” she analyzed.
For her, other traditional Brazilian dishes also deserved to appear in the selections. “Far beyond the dishes included in the Taste Atlas ranking, Brazilian gastronomy is rich in flavors from the North to the South of the country. There are certainly a lot of good things missing from this list, such as farofa, pamonha, acarajé, tacacá and so many other delicacies that deserve to be among the 100 best in the world,” she highlighted.
Also, according to Ana Paula Jacques, Brazil always stands out when it comes to traditional food. “Therefore, we invite you to travel to destinations such as BH [Belo Horizonte, MG], Floripa [Florianópolis, SC], Belém (PA) and Paraty (RJ). These four cities have in common the fact that they are recognized by UNESCO as creative cities of gastronomy. Furthermore, today, Brazil brings together restaurants and chefs recognized by the main gastronomy rankings in the world and in Latin America and has the most sustainable restaurant in Latin America [Manu, by chef Manu Buffara], in Curitiba (PR), and the 4th ° best restaurant in the world [A Casa do Porco], in São Paulo (SP)”, she added.
Best by city
The country also occupies several places in the ranking of best foods by cities, which evaluated 16,600 locations to select the 100 best. In this case, the country ranked 31st with São Paulo (SP), 43rd with Rio de Janeiro (RJ), 55th with Recife (PE), 66th with Salvador (BA) and 84th with Belo Horizonte (MG).
In another list, of the 100 best cuisines in the world, which does not indicate a specific dish, Brazil appears in 12th. In this case, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place went to Italy, Japan and Greece, respectively. And in 13th, 14th and 15th come Poland, Argentina and Turkey. And in the Café da Manhã (breakfast) category, the traditional Minas Gerais cheese bread appears in 3rd place among the best scores and 29th among the most popular.
Best foods by category
The cheese bread and the tutu de feijão also appear in another selection in the guide, where they share space with the escondidinho and the internationally known caipirinha. The ranking of best foods by category takes into account a catalog of 10,900 dishes and 6,100 food products, with 271,800 valid reviews on these dishes and another 80,800 focused on the products, with five nominees by category.
In this selection, the cheese bread appears in 3rd place for breakfast and 4th in the bread category. The tutu de feijão comes in 5th in the vegetable dishes category and 4th in side dishes. The one that also stands out is the Escondidinho, in 3rd place in the “Casseroles” category, and the Gaucho barbecue, in the category of the same name, came in 5th. Finally, in the cocktail category, the caipirinha represents Brazil, in 5th place.
Source: Embratur