Pé de Verso
Pé de Verso (2018) was a gastroperformance held at the invitation of ApexBrasil –the Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments– for the FRU.TO conference led by chef Alex Atala. It is a reflection on the global future of nutrition. In line with the event’s precepts, the gastroperformance used a tree to symbolise the interdependence of Humans and Nature. The installation was a tree painted over a panel with sconce-like shelves from which visitors “harvested” its fruits. These followed a menu with unconventional native ingredients representative of Brazilian biodiversity. Several types of fruit were chosen to represent four Brazilian biomes: (1) from the cerrado: baru nuts and mangaba; (2) from the Amazon region: guaraná, cupuaçu and açaí; (3) from the caatinga: cashew nuts and seriguela; and (4) from the tropical forest: cambuci. The cocoa used as a basic ingredient in most of the recipes was wild and sustainably harvested in the Amazon rainforest. The selected cachaça was aged in barrels of umburana, a Brazilian wood. The chocolate was coloured with 100% natural dyes: beetroot powder, turmeric extract, annatto extract, powdered açaí and chlorella powder. The recipes were shaped like the Pernambuco roll cake, with very thin slivers of coffee or lemon pastry alternating with the different fillings.