“I am going to work. I am going to build. I was born to build.”
Janaína Torres is a defining force in Brazilian gastronomy, seamlessly pairing culinary mastery with a deep commitment to social impact. Raised in the heart of downtown São Paulo, her career is rooted in the vibrant streets of her hometown, where she launched her journey with the opening of Bar da Dona Onça in the legendary Copan building. What began as a neighborhood revival catalyst blossomed into a diverse culinary portfolio that includes A Casa do Porco, Hot Pork, Sorveteria do Centro, and Merenda da Cidade – each driven by her philosophy that high-quality, artisanal food should be accessible to everyone.
Beyond her acclaimed kitchens, Torres has left an indelible mark through widespread public service, notably transforming school nutrition across São Paulo State and leading the À Brasileira research initiative to preserve national culinary traditions. Recognized globally for her cultural leadership, authorship, television work, and presidency of the Instituto Brasil a Gosto, she views cooking not merely as a profession, but as a powerful vehicle for heritage, community, and human connection.
The Best Chef: You have been vocal about facing severe challenges in your career. How do you navigate those hurdles without losing your momentum?
Janaína Torres: About four or five years ago, I went through some very difficult moments because of sexism. Horrible things. But I cannot stop. If you do not fight, you are dead. So I fight every day. And I do not want to portray myself as a victim. That is not my approach. My approach is different. I am going to work. I am going to build. I was born to build. And no one will destroy what I have built. So I keep building.
That is what I always tell women. Let’s work. Rise above it and work. Work. Because work keeps you from dwelling on things and lifts you up. So get up and go to work. Everything passes.
I strongly believe in gastronomy as a means of bringing happiness, because we cannot always be happy on such an inhospitable planet. But it becomes welcoming. Hospitality comes from food, from restaurants, and from the cooks of this world. Because it is where you find the joy of living and discovering. So I truly believe that being a cook is the best job in the world. There’s nothing else like it.
Life is difficult. What is easy is loving what you do. When you have that much love, everything starts to change. Of course, living is not easy. But being able to please someone, to put your energy into food, and have that person eat and feel good, feel loved through a dish you create, a dish you make, perhaps for a community, I think that brings great beauty into this world.
The Best Chef: Can you take us back to your roots in São Paulo and how your journey in the culinary world began?
Janaína Torres: I am a São Paulo native, born here downtown, in the Brás neighborhood. I began my career as a cook selling sandwiches and coxinhas on these streets. Going door to door with trays, offering food to people. And I always dreamt that one day I could change my life and stop being so vulnerable.
Money was very tight. I dreamed of opening a bar. A small bar serving everyday food. Food for everyone. I saved every penny and put it all into that bar, Bar da Dona Onça. Within the first five months we won best cuisine in São Paulo. There were endless queues outside the bar. I had to expand it, because demand was so high.
From opening until today, I have served almost 15,000 people a month. Then I created A Casa do Porco. After that came Hot Pork, Sorveteria do Centro, Merenda da Cidade, and now Estrela da Cidade and the A Brasileira project.
The Best Chef: Your A Brasileira project delves deep into history and heritage. What is the core mission behind it?
Janaína Torres: A Brasileira project researches all the people who came to Brazil, tracing their ancestry and Brazil’s ancient culinary traditions, before colonization and after it, with everyone who arrived here. We explore the regions and the people who came here. And the project also travels abroad, connecting other countries with Brazil.
What can I find in Spain, for example? What is there of Brazil in Spain? What connections does Brazil have with the whole world?
It is a project that brings everyone closer together. It is about ingredients, about people, but much more than that, it is about culture. About everyone exploring Brazilian identity, both in Brazil and abroad. Brazilian identity is a blend, like our music, which mixes so much: Indigenous influences, African influences, and Italian immigrants. From that, new cultures often emerge, new traditional celebrations, or more popular ones, like Carnival, for example.
Then you also explore what people eat within those communities. How those communities take shape through Brazilian culture, through these Brazilian identities. And Brazilian identity is all of us. We are descendants of Spaniards, of Portuguese, Italians, Arabs, Bolivians, Peruvians, Haitians and Jamaicans. All of that is part of Brazilian identity. All of it is deeply connected to Brazil.
A Brasileira is the whole world.
The Best Chef: We are seeing more prominent women shaping professional kitchens across Latin America. How are female chefs changing the culinary landscape?
Janaína Torres: Today, especially in Brazil and Latin America, we see more and more very strong women in kitchens. What do these women bring to professional kitchens? They bring diversity and balance, with men and women working together.
They bring a more human, more socially minded approach to kitchens that were militaristic, very masculine and very harsh. Perhaps it was very hard for the men to work for so many years without these women, without women working alongside them. Because you lose the warmth of the kitchen.
Not that women are only sweet. No. Women can be tough too. But they bring a strong social perspective. It is important for men to work with that, so they do not forget that a restaurant has a social role. I think today’s kitchens are more mixed, much more human and much more enjoyable places to work.
Chef Instagram: @janainatorresoficial
Restaurant Instagram: @bardadonaonca
Restaurant Address: Rua Ferreira De Araújo, 330, São Paulo, 05428-000, Brazil
