From Masterchef to Casa Brasil: meet the chef at Connectarch

Fabrizio Barata has 45 years. It's from Bahia, but has lived in São Paulo for 22 years. He is currently a businessman. Was always, actually. The passage through the most famous cooking program in Brazil, the masterchef, can make us believe not, but he is still an amateur cook – because he loves what he does, as he himself says. He is the official chef of Connectarch events in the season 2023. It will once again lead the invited architects of Conexões Casa to an immersion in the kitchen, this week, at Casa Brasil. Why not just design the spaces, the professional has to experience a kitchen, in truth!

So, Get to know better the chef who left the TV screen to spice up the Connectarch experiences!

It all started with a broken pot

there by 39 years, after a lot of cooking for friends to relieve stress, they started urging him to sign up for the program. “One day a friend brought a participant from a previous edition to my house, and he wanted to cook. I asked to be careful with my clay pot, but the guy broke the pot and moqueca went all over the place!”. The tragic incident with the favorite pan is what motivated Fabrizio, who thought: “I didn't even want, But now I’m going to find a way to get into the program.”.

Photo: StormX Digital

Confident that MasterChef was for amateurs – people who love what they are doing, and not just for the profession –, he recorded a video, encouraged by another friend, was selected and entered the program. “It was intense, exhausting, tiring. Were 20 weeks with the program on air. I had a company at the time, it was a bad time for business. But I still came out in 8th place, selected from more than 70 thousand enrolled". Fabrizio left the program well aware that momentary visibility was no guarantee of success.. I didn't see you in the kitchen, opening a restaurant. It was the path I already knew: opened a new company operating in the advertising technology sector. This is the current job. Chef? Stay for spare time!

Cooking is an act of love… for the kitchen!

"Bench, wall, floor. It all embraces you in a kitchen. We need to be welcomed by what surrounds us. All this has an obviously sentimental appeal., but talks a lot about the professional side. How a product can be useful in the daily life of those who use the kitchen? How will it make cleaning easier?? how to welcome, with affection and care? Having a good countertop makes the difference for cleaning, to hygiene. How to enjoy cooking?”. Some of the chef's reflections are ours – from Connectarch – too, therefore, one of the many Connectarch experiences is to bring program members right into the kitchen.

The debut in haute cuisine

And architect can cook? The chef assures that yes! And more: it's all about! “Cooking is an act of love, of dedication. It's a bit of what the architect does. Most of those who are there have a vision focused on the design of houses or developments, but they build for those who will need to cook, and it is always important that they have a minimum of notion, like the bottom of the drawer, the closet space, the movement of people. Engaging is different from making others look. When you execute something you are learning, You learn".

And they really get their hands dirty. And massa, in the salad, on carne, in the sauce… Everything is not always beautiful, sometimes amateurism takes over, but the boss guarantees that no pan is injured in this process! Neither pot nor countertop, as the knife cannot damage a good porcelain tile surface, Is not it?

Cooking with Chef Fabrizio goes way beyond the basics. The experience is at MasterChef level. And how do architects fare in this process?? “Some are apprehensive because they have never cooked, it's not part of their day to day, others don't even come close to a kitchen. But they disarm, take off their armor and get their hands dirty too. when we see, all this unfolds in 30, 40 dishes. It's like the day to day work we already do, It needs to be participatory to work”.

these amateurs!

Dust, paella, duck ragu with fresh pasta, Sicilian lemon risotto with shrimp… It's for the better! And who never fried an egg, how to do? Says the boss that everyone excels, but until you get there, there are many challenges – and disgusting ones. “In one of the experiences, some guests had never tried making dough, each one did as he had learned, but the result was a pink mass, a green one, one purple and one white. It was very funny! There are also those who had never seen the preparation of an octopus, or cleaning the shrimp and don't like the texture… really, it's kinda soft!”

For Fabrizio, the kitchen is a school, regardless of who enters it. Creativity, improvisation, agility… are very welcome skills for everyday life, for any profession, since everything in life is experience. “It's like having a baby. As much as you read a lot, just having to understand”. The chef also understands this subject well. With only two years old, to Martina, Fabrizio's daughter, it certainly has a lot to teach us in the kitchen. “Fabulous, I will help you”, she says, Interacting on Father's Recipes.

Follow the guests of Connectarch in the kitchen of Casa Brasil in the profile of @elianerevestimentos.