Where to Start with Leticia Moreinos Schwartz
Leticia Moreinos Schwartz is a Brazilian chef, cookbook author, and journalist born in Rio de Janeiro and based in the United States. She trained professionally as a chef and has appeared on The Today Show, Martha Stewart Living Radio, Better Homes and Gardens Better TV, and NBC’s LX TV. Her first book, The Brazilian Kitchen (2010), won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best Latin Cookbook in Paris. Her second book, My Rio de Janeiro: A Cookbook (2013), takes readers on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood tour of Rio’s food scene, combining approximately 90 recipes with personal stories from her upbringing in the city. Schwartz writes about food with the precision of a trained chef and the warmth of someone sharing her hometown with a friend.
Start here
My Rio de Janeiro: A Cookbook
Leticia Moreinos Schwartz · 208 pages · 2013 · Moderate
Themes: brazilian cuisine, rio de janeiro, carioca cooking, street food, neighborhood food
A love letter to Rio de Janeiro told through approximately 90 recipes organized by neighborhood. Schwartz takes readers on a culinary tour from Leblon to Copacabana to the hillside markets of Santa Teresa, sharing the dishes that define each area along with personal stories of growing up in the city.
Why Start Here
This is Schwartz’s most personal and distinctive book. While The Brazilian Kitchen (2010) offers a broader survey, My Rio de Janeiro has a focus and sense of place that makes it more compelling. The neighborhood-by-neighborhood structure gives each recipe a story and a context, so you understand not just how to cook a dish but where it comes from and why it matters.
You get shrimp and catupiry cheese turnovers from a botequim in Leblon, yucca crackers from the beaches of Ipanema, and chocolate-Brazil nut cake inspired by a specialty grocery in Copacabana. The recipes include classic Carioca dishes like feijoada and farofa alongside lesser-known regional preparations that reflect the multicultural layers of Rio’s food scene.
What to Expect
A hardcover at 208 pages with photography that captures both the food and the city. The recipes lean toward home-style Carioca cooking, with some restaurant-inspired dishes mixed in. You will need a few specialty ingredients like dende oil and catupiry cheese, but most recipes use widely available pantry staples. Schwartz is a trained chef, so the instructions are precise and professional while remaining accessible to home cooks.