Sunday lunch: filet mignon ragu in blackberry sauce garnished with Brazil nut risotto. If you prefer fish: tilapia breaded in tapioca, fried cassava and rice. Pork? Go for the smoked ribs with plantain moqueca. Take the family, the dog, a blanket to spread out on the ground and have a picnic. Come prepared to listen to good music and enjoy the Unicamp campus in Barão Geraldo on a weekend.
Up to six thousand people are expected for the second edition of the “Chefs na Unicamp” event, scheduled for September 8th, from 11 am to 17 pm. There will be 13 food tents and one for drinks. The event is free and is part of the Unicamp Professionals Symposium (Simtec), held at the Convention Center until Wednesday (11).
Anyone who comes this year will notice a different vibe, which has to do with the diversity that Unicamp proposes. Some dishes have elements of indigenous cuisine, others bring African or Afro-Brazilian cuisine. “One of the things we encouraged was that the guest chefs could create dishes with some ingredient from the indigenous community as a tribute to this group of new Unicamp students”, says journalist and chef Manuel Alves Filho, organizer of Chefs.
Chef Manu explains a new term about Brazilian cuisine: Euroafroindigenous. This is more or less what the public will find. Options range from ravioli and a ham snack from the Italian chef to a dish with a Congolese name, Ngombe, which is a plantain gnocchi served with fresh tomato sauce and shimeji.
It is not food served on the street, but street food, with a concept. “There is this street food movement that has grown a lot in the last five years, but it is often a type of food that we associate with fast food. Our proposal is different. People began to understand what ancestral food is linked to people's experiences. What we want is association with home food, moving towards tradition, not only Brazilian cuisine, but also that which comes from abroad”.
In this edition, students from the Policamp gastronomy course were also invited to make tacacá, a typical dish from the Amazon region, as well as tapioca. Pastry chef Sérgio Rischioto will bring a menu that would be better kept secret... And also the baker chef, with high hydration and long fermentation breads. The menu would only be complete if there was a barbecue and yes, there will be a chef specializing in roasts.
So much good and diverse food serves as an invitation. Chef Manu remembers that in the first edition of the event he spoke to visitors who had never been to Unicamp or only knew the health area. “In this sense, the event is an opportunity to get closer to the external community. I believe that the University has this vocation, as is the case in other countries. We need to offer events so that people can enjoy the spaces with their parents, children and pets, and that is what we want to provide,” he said.
Sunday's schedule also includes apresentations by the Unicamp Free School of Music, music presentations, workshops at the Exploratory Science Museum for children aged 5 to 10 and theater. A tent will be set up to receive book donations. Look here the complete program of Chefs and Simtec.
