Brazilian Nature on a Plate

Benjamin Gainyllo Joel
Jul 1
4 min read

By Hyperlocal, through Brazil Adventure Club

In most places, food is a reflection of culture.

In Brazil, especially in the hands of Chef Alex Atala, food becomes a translation of nature.

Atala is not your typical fine-dining celebrity. He’s part chef, part explorer, part storyteller — and through his work, he’s carved out a culinary path that cuts through rainforest canopies, riverside fishing villages, remote Indigenous communities, and into kitchens where ancestral wisdom lives on every plate.

For Atala, Brazilian cuisine isn’t just about ingredients. It’s about understanding ecosystems, about asking questions like:

“Where did this flavor grow? Who touched it? What story does it carry?”

This is Brazilian nature on a plate — raw, real, rooted.

More Than a Chef: A Cultural Cartographer

When Atala founded D.O.M. in São Paulo — now a world-renowned Michelin-starred restaurant — it wasn’t just to elevate Brazilian food. It was to decode Brazil’s biodiversity through taste. He wanted to bring flavors from forgotten corners of the country into the global spotlight — but without losing their soul.

So he did what few chefs dared:He ventured into the Amazon, into remote river communities, into forests and fields, not just to forage but to listen.

From shamans to small farmers, from Indigenous cooks to fishermen, Atala built relationships that went beyond transactions. He learned how ants can taste like lemongrass. How tucupi (a fermented manioc sauce) is sacred in the North. How jambu (a numbing herb) doesn’t just flavor a dish, it transforms it into experience.

“If we don’t understand the origin of our ingredients,” he once said,“we’ll never understand our identity.”

What Ants, Roots, and Rivers Teach Us

Let’s talk about the ants.

Yes — actual ants.

One of Atala’s most iconic dishes features them delicately placed on top of pineapple cubes. They’re not a gimmick. These ants, found in the Amazon, naturally taste of lemongrass because of the plants they feed on. In Atala’s hands, they become a bridge between the natural world and haute cuisine.

But beyond the wow factor, there’s philosophy here:Insects are sustainable, local, high in protein, and deeply embedded in Indigenous diets. Atala isn’t just putting them on plates — he’s putting a conversation on the table.

The same goes for roots and wild herbs — manioc in all its forms (flour, broth, tucupi, fermented paste), river fish like pirarucu, native fruits like cupuaçu and açaí in their purest, unsweetened form.

Each ingredient is treated with respect, not masked or manipulated. The forest is never erased, it’s amplified.

A Journey Across Brazil, Bite by Bite

When we talk about “following” Chef Atala’s journey, we don’t mean simply watching a documentary or dining at D.O.M. (though both are recommended).

We mean immersing yourself in the regions that inspire his work:

In the Amazon, where women teach fermentation like a sacred ritual.
In the Cerrado, where wild herbs are medicine, and cooking is resistance.
In the coastal towns, where fish is grilled over open fires and shared without pretense.

Through our curated journeys at Brazil Adventure Club; a Hyperlocal experience, we take travelers to these very places. Not to mimic haute cuisine, but to rediscover something deeper: the relationship between people, place, and plate. You may not eat at a Michelin table, but you’ll eat something far rarer — a meal with memory.

Where Culture Meets Cuisine

Atala believes that cooking is not an act of vanity — it’s an act of preservation.

He works with NGOs and Indigenous cooperatives. He collaborates with botanists and sociologists. His menu evolves as Brazil evolves. And most importantly, he challenges us to rethink luxury.

“Luxury is not caviar,” he says.“Luxury is knowing the fisherman who caught your fish. It’s knowing where your food comes from.”

This sentiment is the foundation of Hyperlocal’s approach to travel — of which Brazil Adventure Club is a living expression. We don’t seek out Brazil’s most famous restaurants — we seek out its most honest kitchens. A roadside tapioca stand. A riverside smokehouse. A backyard clay oven where a grandmother still brews herbal tea for fever and heartbreak alike.

Cooking as Exploration, Eating as Education

At Hyperlocal, we believe travel should change you.

So should a meal.

Whether you’re kneeling beside a fire in the Pantanal, slicing mangoes with a farmer in Bahia, or tasting fermented corn beer from a local woman in Acre — food becomes more than fuel. It becomes a portal into how Brazilians live, love, survive, and celebrate.

This is what Alex Atala’s work reveals — not just a cuisine, but a conversation between land and life.

Your Invitation: Taste the Real Brazil

With Brazil Adventure Club by Hyperlocal, we follow the spirit — not just the itinerary — of chefs like Atala. We go where flavors grow. Where hands still knead, stir, roast, and grind the way they did generations ago. Where the jungle whispers its recipes and the river sings them back.

This isn’t food tourism. It’s culinary intimacy.

So, if you’re hungry for something more than a good meal, If you want your next bite to have roots, Then come travel with us.

Because in Brazil, food isn’t just something we eat.

It’s something we are.