It’s not a myth and it shouldn’t be taboo: in the hospital series, doctors marry doctors. In those involving the media, whether in advertising agencies or newsrooms, there’s always a little bit of flirting.
Obviously, if we invade the backstage of culinary reality shows, there’s bound to be romance. After all, nothing more natural than professions that require intensive – if not exaggerated – socializing unfold into passions, right?
Thinking about them, for this Valentine’s Day we heard some of the most emblematic couples of the current gastronomic scene in São Paulo . Couples capable of sharing the stove burners, the cocktail shakers and even the corkscrew in the purest generosity and that, exclusively for CNN Travel & Gastronomy reveal a little of this intimate routine.
Mexican soap opera
the chefs Enrique Olvera and Daniela Soto-Innes from the celebrated restaurant Cosme, in New York, were never a couple, but they are responsible for the formation of one: the one from São Paulo Luana Sabino and the Mexican from Oaxaca Eduardo Ortiz .
“We started working together in 2017 and we became friends, but people started to notice, Daniela started making jokes and we ended up leaving”, says Luana. From there, the couple stayed a few more in the United States, others touring Mexico until they landed in Brazil, at the end of 2019.
Although they found a property in Pinheiros without delay, they only opened the Metzi at the end of 2020. Since then, the contemporary house, inspired by Mexican traditions, without ignoring Tupiniquin inputs, has gone from strength to strength – and the couple too, thank you.
“As we got to know each other working, we separate things very well. Inside Metzi, it doesn’t even seem like we’re a couple and when we get home, we avoid talking about work as much as possible”, points out Luana. “At home we are a couple, at the restaurant we are two partners, two leaders who share the kitchen. This is what keeps us together to this day”, believes Eduardo.
The division is so clear that, even in the apartment where they live, two blocks from work, when they see a series about food or are in the process of changing the menu, they save the conversations – and the arguments – for the office table.
Between Cups & Kisses
In 2014, Cassia Campos was sommeilère of Grupo Chez and Daniela Bravin of his own restaurant, Bravin. The following year, the establishment closed its activities and the orphaned regulars began to beg for the expert’s wine tips. More than the suggestion of labels, they wanted the balconies, that is, the curatorship of the “auntie”.
“From the longing they missed Dani came the idea of auntie’s boxes, always with six bottles, and it was also the seed of our wine club”, explains Cassia. Subsequently, the need for public appearances arose, since apart from the experts’ tutorial, customers wanted more physical contact.
With the “Itinerante Sommelier” project, the girls took their bathtub full of bottles to sell glasses in spaces such as Mercado de Pinheiros, Lobozó and Conceição Discos, among several restaurants and corners with good food and good vibes.
“We already had this experience with wine and it was never a burden, it was always a very recurring theme in our daily lives”, emphasizes Dani. “To the point where we sit down for lunch or dinner and have the idea of a project that ends up developing into a big thing, as was the case with the Headquarters 261 It is like Huevos de Oro ”, comments Cassia.
If, on the one hand, the first, the wine bar, demands an incessant creative effort, since it is necessary to select from 30 to 40 labels per week to be served in glasses, the second, the Spanish bar, is more complex because in addition to the wines, it involves kitchen, lounge and administration. Adding them to the hassle of the subscription club and small events here and there, it can be said that the harmonization is beyond successful.
Luckily, from bar to bar, it’s only 180 meters and their house and their five pets are literally halfway there: “Taking work home is not a stressful thing. We live the wine, right? It is very difficult to separate”, confesses Dani.
Cassia amends: “We don’t go home thinking about turning everything off. We arrive, open a wine and continue talking, in a lighter way”. And she defines: “Sometimes we go on vacation not to think about work. Then he enters a restaurant, picks up a letter and is already there talking about selection, about where this wine is from, you know? So in the end everything fits together and we are very happy with the unpretentious way in which we take everything. It is a very fruitful partnership.”
Paste & Magic
In 2017, the Floridian son of Koreans and former psychologist, Joseph Lim received the former publicist from Araraquara, Beatriz Freitas in its square at Flora Bar, the acclaimed seafood restaurant by chef Ignacio Mattos, in New York.
After the training, he took the night job and she did the day job: “Each morning, a little note came from Joey, starting with the production list, until one day we went out to the movies”. “Watch Star Wars!” he adds.
“It was super cool, we stopped at a puppy shop and spent hours playing with them, we went to eat, it was a super date, but we didn’t stay”, reveals Bia. “But we stayed a week later at my birthday party,” Joey delivers.
As she lived very close to work and he was very far away, even to gain time, they naturally began to live together: “From the beginning, we got used to spending many hours together in the same place, whether it was 16 hours in the kitchen or every minute at work. House”.
Today in the most celebrated Shihoma paste , in Vila Madalena, went through a period of adaptation: “I’m a chef there and he’s a sous chef. We had to understand what this new dynamic was like and separate the function of each one very well. For me, Joey is the best cook I’ve ever met and I continue to learn from him every day,” she says.
In the apartment in Santa Cecília, the passion for food, catering and “workaholicism” dominate the conversations, however, there is an untouchable rule: when they arrive very tired or stressed, the subject of work is forbidden. So the carriage follows its course.
Affectionate cocktail shop
Behind the counter of one of the most charming and romantic bars in pauliceia, do Executioner they are Cristiana Negreiros and Spencer Amereno Jr . There, drinks like the Waffle Cocktail, based on bourbon, maple syrup and aromatic chocolate bitters, were created by four hands: “He created the concept, we balanced the alcohol and the flavors together, he suggested the glass, I included the garnish for a mini stroopwafel, the Dutch waffle,” she explains.
One of the most awarded bartenders in the country, Spencer met his partner at a professional event in Rio de Janeiro, in June 2021. At the time, she was working at Maguje, in Jardim Botânico, however, the meeting was so, but so intense that, in the same month, Cris crossed the air bridge and settled with him in the Liberdade neighborhood.
“We take advantage of the neighborhood to research ingredients. It is a neighborhood that inspires me a lot. I go out for a walk and come back with an idea for a cocktail presentation, a new concept and, at home, we talk about it”, says the mixologist.
In addition to exchanging ideas about their work, in the comfort of home, they pamper themselves with their own preparations: “We like classics, so I make Gimlet for him and he makes Manhattan for me, because I like more alcoholic drinks”.
Many of these well-executed appetizers package sessions of reality shows. “Actually, whatever has to do with gastronomy or cocktails, we like to watch it”, adds Cris.
Amorous Monothematics
Less than a year ago, chefs Laura Oliveira and Alexandre Vorpagel , Alemão, closely run Bottega 21, a popular bar of Italian descent on Rua dos Pinheiros. Their rapport, however, dates back to 2016.
“When I got into the gastronomy field, my uncle said he was going to introduce me to a chef friend to get me an internship. We got together on the same day and the internship never left! The following month we were already living together”, confesses Laurinha. Alemão, at the time, headed Adega Santiago and she, without the internship, ended up in Grupo Fasano.
“We complement each other very professionally too, but we often fight, with the right to rip our tails off in the middle of the kitchen. If you feel like strangling the other, we walk away, take a deep breath and then go back to work”, laughs Laurinha.
Apart from the assembly and renovation of menus, always done by four hands, to avoid possible bottlenecks, she takes over the management, training of the team and the operation of the kitchen, while Alemão is in the trench of the day to day, maintaining direct contact with suppliers and the pattern of recipes.
“At home we talk about work all the time, we talk about the future of our projects, what to do to improve, we create recipes… The hard part is that both are workaholics and we really like the daily grind. It’s not hard, it’s actually fun!” he says.
Source: CNN Brasil
