Connecting to Heritage Through Food with Teresa Corção, Founder, Instituto Maniva.

Teresa Corção was the Chef and Owner of the restaurant O Navegador from 1981 to 2020. The restaurant closed during the Covid 19 pandemic.

In 2001, she joined the International Slow Food Movement as co-leader in Rio de Janeiro, becoming interested in the socio-environmental influence linked to the world of food.

In 2002, she created the Cassava Project, researching the importance of this root for Brazil, promoting Tapioca Workshops in public schools until 2012, innovating food education with a concept she created: “gastronomic identity”.

In 2007, she founded the Maniva Institute and the Ecochefs group, Civil Social Organization of Public Interest – OSCIP, a pioneer in working with gastronomy as an instrument for socio-environmental transformation: “valuing traditional foods and reestablishing lost ties between small and medium-sized farmers, their products and consumers”

She is the creator and screenwriter of documentaries: O Professor da Farinha (2004), Seu Bené Via Para a Itália (2006) (screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008), The Food Path (2015), Terra Preta, Aço Prata (2016), in addition to the TV series Bagunça na Cozinha shown on Canal Futura (2010).

She was chosen as Chef Ambassador of Brazilian Cuisine at SENAC, and she was a speaker at TEDX CAMPOS in 2012 and at TED GLOBAL-SOUTH during the Rio Olympics in 2015.

Teresa was a finalist for the Basque Culinary World Prize, which is considered the Nobel Prize for Gastronomy in 2016, for her work as an activist chef and researcher of healthy and sustainable Brazilian cuisine.

Other highlights:

Co-creator in 2019 and manager of the Projeto Gosto da Amazônia – whose objective is to open the Rio de Janeiro market for wild arapaima from Amazon management.

Consultant in the training of the 12th Military Region in Amazonas for training in cooking regional Amazonian products.

Co-creator of the Alimenta Manaus campaign during the pandemic that enabled the connection between family farmers and food insecure populations in the city of Manaus, promoting the acquisition of organic and culturally related products to the beneficiaries.

Co-manager of the Arroz Anã project in Porto Marinho, in the State of Rio. Curator of the Project at SENAC for the production of the book Very Prazer, Arroz Anã and lectures and show classes at events to promote the culture of this product.

Winner, by Instituto Maniva, of the Jabuti Award in 2020, the most important in Brazilian literature, in the Creative Economy category for the book Ecochefs, Parceiros do Agricultor – Editora SENAC, in the Creative Economy category.

Curator and consultant and Executive Chef at Bistrô SESC Convento do Carmo in 2023, 2024.

Teresa is a Fellow of the international organizations Ashoka and Synergos. She also participates in international Forums linked to the sustainability of Food Systems, such as Conscious Food Systems Alliance – CoFSA and Catalysts 2030 Brasil.

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