Today's story interlaces with who I became. First of all, I am a photographer, at the age of 20 I knew I would be a photographer forever. But as I already wrote here on the blog, I studied culinary, I was a professional cook and even a chef, and this relationship with gastronomy is older than it seems. My mother was a cook at the first vegetarian restaurant in Curitiba, Brazil, in the 1980s, and so I grew up with her delights and at the age of 13 there I was inside a kitchen as an assistant. But like any teenager I didn't really know how to appreciate the beauty of the kitchen, at that time everything was just work. I spent all my adolescence in a restaurant and when I changed jobs at 19, incredible as it may seem, I ended up going to work as a maitre d 'at the same address where my mother was a cook, except that the former vegetarian restaurant, ironically, had become a steakhouse. With the arrival of my first daughter, I was unable to continue the art college I had started, and I dedicated myself to photography. In 2002 I graduated in my first course and I continued studying and working little by little, as a freelancer in photojournalism, macro photography for orthodontics and fashion photography.

At the end of 2003 my daughter was already 3 years old and so I decided to stop photographing for a while, sold my photographic equipment and opened a bar, called Blackout. And it was at that moment that my life met that of the then beginner chef João Victor Valente. He came to my bar and tasted one of my seasoned hamburgers, and from that came the invitation to study contemporary cuisine for the first time. Our conversation in this regard would still last a whole year, as it was only in 2004 that I decided to take his advice and seek him out to help me immerse myself in haute cuisine. There was no way for me to take a course because at that time I was already working at another bar and my time was very short, so he introduced me to chef Flávio Frenkel, for whom he headed a small bistro in a Curitiba wine bar. I started as his assistant and it was with these two great masters that I learned the main techniques of contemporary cuisine that serve as tools in my daily life today. After that, I worked as a cook for almost 5 years in different places in Brazil and Europe, including France, Barcelona and finally Milan, Italy, where I moved in 2009. I returned to photography studies and started photographing again, but as a passionate about gastronomy, I decided to specialize in gastronomic photography, and I can say that I owe this inspiration to this great friend. It's been 16 years since we were together in a kitchen for the first time. We split up, I was in Brazil, Italy and Switzerland, and he was in Germany and other countries. Unfortunately we did not meet in Europe and currently he returned to Brazil, and I to Italy, but we remained friends and he continues to be a great master for me.

The passionate chef

Chef João Valente has almost 20 years of experience in gastronomy, since he graduated from Senac (Brazilian Technical School) in 2003. Since then he has taken courses and worked in the area in several countries on 3 continents. He is interested in ancestral recipes from different cultures and seeks to use them in fusion with the knowledge he has learned in modern kitchen techniques. With Italian-Brazilian roots, he carries the heritage of that affective cuisine, of countryside food, made with artisanal methods and connected to the community.

The main influence came from the family always gathered around the abundant table at festive and weekend gatherings. The leadership of women in the preparation of food served as an inspiration for the choice of gastronomy and for the type of cuisine that he seeks to develop. The training at Senac happened when he left the countryside of Paraná in search of opportunities in Curitiba and met a gastronomy sector student, arousing interest in professionalization.

In his career he has worked in renowned restaurants and with award-winning chefs in Brazil, Argentina and Germany. In Berlin, he signed his first authorial cuisine, the Butterhandlung, reaching prominence on the city’s gastronomic scene. On trips in Europe and Asia he took courses and absorbed several techniques and flavors. Back in Brazil, based in Florianópolis, he headed the Rita Maria Lagosteria, a traditional seafood restaurant, and currently offers consultancy at the restaurant Caprese Pizza e Pasta. At Origem Cozinha Artesanal (Origin Artisan Cuisine, in English), the chef's new project, he develops fresh and frozen recipes using local products, fresh, organic and without the addition of preservatives whenever possible. He prioritizes the partnership with local producers and suppliers, and delivers refined recipes to be consumed in a practical way by the clients.

Chef João is one of those cooks deeply in love with the profession and the universe of gastronomy. His story, dedication and professionalism are one of the greatest examples that I still have today, so reproducing one of his recipes is an honor without a doubt. I wish that everyone who is reading can also reproduce and enjoy this special dish from this inspiring chef.

Egg ravioli
For 2 people

Ingredients

Dough:
- 250 g of flour
- 50 g of semolina
- 3 eggs

Filling:
- 100 g fresh ricotta
- 100 g of spinach
- 100 g of grated parmesan/pecorino
- Free-range egg yolks

Butter and sage sauce:
- 100 g butter
- Fresh sage leaves
- Salt and white pepper qb

Preparation
Mix the flour with the semolina, dig a hole in the center and add the eggs. Incorporate with a fork until you are able to handle and knead the dough until smooth. Cover with a damp cloth and let stand for 20 minutes. In the meantime, cook the spinach, and when ready squeeze well to drain all the water and finely chop everything. Knead the ricotta and mix the spinach and the grated cheese and set aside. Roll out the dough with the roller or the cylinder 1 mm thick and cut 10 cm squares or circles. Place a portion of the filling in the center and, on top, gently accommodate a yolk. Cover with another sheet of dough, pressing the edges to close tightly. Separately in a frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat and fry the sage for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook the ravioli in boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Drain, transfer to the pan with the sauce and heat for 1 minute.

In our reproduction, we incorporate the white truffle flavor, as advised by the chef, using 50 g of pecorino with black truffle cheese in the filling and olive oil with white truffle in the sage sauce.