Launch of the Book Manu by Editora Melhoramentos

07/01/2026 was the day to talk about this incredible launch. Writing a book is much more than gathering recipes. It is transforming a life into a memory.

It is leaving a legacy for my daughters, my family, and for all the people who have walked alongside me.

Within these pages are the recipes that were created since 2011, when Manu opened its doors. But they began much earlier.

They began with the curious girl who traveled by bus with her grandmother, in the first memories of the kitchen, in the people who crossed my path, in the journeys that changed the way I see the world, in the producers who taught me to see Brazil differently, and in every challenge that helped me grow.

This book tells how food shaped me. It speaks about choices, sacrifices, courage, and persistence. About understanding that dreams do not happen by chance. They are built through work, discipline, study, dedication, and, above all, the desire to keep going even when the path seems difficult.

Each dish holds a memory. Each recipe records a moment of my life.

But this book is not mine. It belongs to my family, who always believed in me; to my collaborators, who turn ideas into reality every day; to the producers who share with me their love for the land; to the customers who trusted our cuisine; to the journalists, friends, and partners who helped tell this story. And to all the people who have passed through Manu and left a little bit of themselves here.

None of these pages were written alone.

I hope that, when this book reaches your hands, it becomes more than a collection of recipes. May it awaken memories, create encounters, inspire new stories, and show that the kitchen has the power to connect people.

If today I can share all of this, it is because many hands have brought me here. Thank you for being part of this journey. This book holds my story, but it only exists because it was built from so many other stories. And that is why, in the end, this book is ours.

“My Brazil is not the only one. It is simply the Brazil I have lived and had the privilege of knowing, because every Brazilian carries their own.”

Many people have asked me why the subtitle is “From My Brazil.”

Because I believe there is not just one Brazil. There is a Brazil for each Brazilian.

The Brazil of childhood memories, family recipes, celebrations, journeys, markets, plantations, rivers, mountains, and the sea. The Brazil that moves us and transforms us.

This book does not intend to tell the story of Brazil — that would be impossible. It tells the story of my Brazil, the Brazil I have discovered throughout my life, through the roads I traveled, the kitchens that welcomed me, the producers who opened their doors, and the people who shared with me their ingredients, their stories, and their knowledge. It is a Brazil built through encounters.

And I hope that, as you turn these pages, you also find a little of your own Brazil within them. Because, in the end, that is what food does: it connects us to the place we come from and, at the same time, brings us closer to one another.