By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Thursday, December 4th, publishers Réptil Editora launched “Gula Gula – Cozinha Carioca” (Gula Gula – A Rio Kitchen), a new cookbook that also chronicles the rise of Gula Gula, a now famous network of seventeen Rio de Janeiro restaurants that began, a little over thirty years ago, as one shop in Leblon.
While written in Portuguese, the book, in addition to telling the story of Gula Gula’s rise in Rio, features mouthwatering images accompanying thirty of the restaurant’s recipes for its now famous dishes.
Readers can cook at home the restaurant’s dishes incuding brie and apricot quiche; quinoa salad with chicken; “Sopa de Baroa ,” soup with smoked haddock; roasted shrimp with leeks, couscous salad with salmon; and folhado de bacalhau (puff pastry with salted cod), among other entrees and main dishes. For dessert, recipes include white chocolate pie with berries; swiss roll complete with nuts and Gula Gula’s special apple pie.
Additionally, a QR code on the book allows readers to access, through their mobile devices, videos of a chef illustrating step-by-step preparations of six of the featured dishes.
All of the recipes featured in the new book were approved by executive chef Nanda Lamare. In charge of the Gula Gula kitchen for over fifteen years, Lamere is also the granddaughter of Gula Gula’s founder, the Fernando de Lamare. The elder Lamare created Gula Gula in 1984 as a small shop in Leblon, a neighborhood located in Rio de Janeiro’s Zone Sul (South Zone).
During the three decades that followed the opening, Lamare’s son, Pedro de Lamare joined in the operation, along with Duda Daniel, Patrícia Wiethaeuper and later Nanda Lamare, to help to grow the business into the network of seventeen restaurants it is today. “Gula Gula is a success story of a typical family and traditional Carioca [Rio resident], that was able to grow without losing its identity,” said journalist Bruno Agostini in a statement issued before the book’s release.
Gula Gula – Cozinha Carioca can be purchased for R$68 from most major booksellers throughout the country and at the seventeen Gula Gula restaurants located in Rio de Janeiro. See the main website here, for addresses and for more information about dining at one of Gula Gula’s locations.