Having won the Best Female Chef in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants only last year, Helena Rizzo’s international recognition is quickly picking up speed, as she achieves this prestigious award for The World’s Best Female Chef!
Heading up one of Latin America’s most sought after restaurants, Mani, Helena Rizzo combines her extensive experience in the kitchens of the world’s finest restaurants, including El Celler de Can Roca, Helena serves her guests contemporary Brazilian cuisine with highlights of international influences. The food is accessible and exciting with dishes such as sticky skewers of octopus with confit potatoes and sweet paprika; heady cachaça-steamed shrimp; and peach palm and pumpkin tortelli.
Chef Rizzo explains that “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’, especially because 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.”
The award is not only a recognition of Rizzo’s wonderful talent and skill, but also a celebration of her success “in what remains a very male world, we feel that celebrating the success of brilliant female chefs is vitally important”, Group Editor of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, William Drew explains. He sees Helena’s achievement as a positive inspiration for future generations of women to enter the profession.
Read more about Helena’s career on her .