Helena Rizzo of Mani Restaurant, in São Paulo, Brazil has been named the 2014 Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef and will be honoured at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, in London on the 28th April.
Winner of last year’s Veuve Clicquot Latin America’s Best Female Chef award at the inaugural Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants in September 2013, Brazilian-born Rizzo moved to São Paulo aged 18 to pursue a modelling career. She began working in kitchens part time and, before long, had turned her back on modeling to nurture her love of gastronomy.
After working with some of the most influential names on the Brazilian food scene including Emmanuel Bassoleil, Luciano Boseggia and Neka Barreto, Rizzo spent two years running the kitchen at São Paulo’s Na Mata Café before embarking on a culinary adventure dedicated to honing her skills and researching new techniques.
Stints in Italy and Spain followed, including time at El Celler de Can Roca, currently the highest ranked restaurant on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Her time at the Girona restaurant was particularly special, as it was here that she met her future husband and partner in the kitchen, Spanish chef Daniel Redondo. Rizzo returned to São Paulo in 2004, with Redondo following her in early 2005, ready for the next step of their gastronomic journey.
Mani Restaurant opened its doors in 2006 in the São Paulo suburb of Jardim Paulistano, with the unusual combination of husband and wife working alongside one another in the kitchen. Their clever cooking, respectful of traditional Brazilian culinary practices and ingredients, is married with modern technique and sprinkled with Spanish influence.
With Rizzo’s Brazilian heritage always to the fore, the kitchen offers a unique gastronomic experience. A signature dish, which epitomizes Rizzo’s cooking, is her interpretation of Brazilian classic Maniocas, baked and served with tucupi froth, coconut milk and white truffle oil. Rizzo and Redondo are constantly searching for authenticity in their cooking, earning them praise from some of the world’s top culinary critics and fellow chefs. When asked what makes Helena such a great chef, Joan Roca of El Celler de Can Roca, the current holder of the top spot on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, explained “Helena has talent, sensibility and passion. She is authentic and faithful to her roots.”
Through this accolade The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, in partnership with Veuve Clicquot, shines a light on a rarefied family of extraordinary female chefs. The Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef award celebrates the work of a woman whose cooking excites the world’s toughest critics and most venerated chefs, more than 900 of whom voted in this category.
William Drew, Group Editor of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, said, “We are very proud to present this award, in conjunction with Veuve Clicquot, to Helena. In what remains a very male world, we feel that celebrating the success of brilliant female chefs is vitally important. If Helena’s achievements, in turn, inspire future generations of women to enter the profession, that can only be a positive outcome.”
The Champagne house has long been known for empowering innovative and audacious women. It began with Madame Clicquot, who came to the helm of the business in 1805, creating the successful global brand of today which extends to the 40-year-old annual Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award.
Rizzo responded to the news of her win by saying: “This award is a recognition of my work and of the work of our entire team. I am not and have never intended to be ‘the best female chef in the world’, this is a difficult judgment to make. Each one of us can be the best in a particular situation, at a given time for a certain person. Of course, I’m very happy and honoured to receive this award and I’m grateful for it! At Maní, we try to do our best every day, sometimes we get it wrong but sometimes we get it right… I hope that this award makes the gastronomic world open its eyes to the work of female cooks and to the wonderful kitchens we have in Brazil.”
As a winner of The Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef award, Helena Rizzo joins a group of exceptionally talented women including luminaries Elena Arzak of Spain’s Arzak, Anne-Sophie Pic, of Maison Pic in France and last year’s winner, Nadia Santini of Dal Pescatore in the Italian countryside.
2014 will also see Rizzo release her first cookbook and open a second restaurant.
Mani Restaurant featured on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for the first time in 2013, ranking at number 46.
Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef Award
The Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef award celebrates the work of an exceptional female chef whose cooking excites the toughest of critics. The award is inspired by the life and achievements of Madame Clicquot who nearly 200 years ago set the standard for women in business. The winner reflects Madame Clicquot’s attributes of innovation, creativity and determination.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards:
This year’s results will be announced at the annual awards ceremony, held in London’s Guildhall on 28th April and published live on twitter (@theworlds50best) and later on www.theworlds50best.com. The awards will also be streamed live on www.finedininglovers.com