Chef Marina Leite turns jatobá into gnocchi and red rice into risotto at Casulo’s “Lapinha Memória Viva” tasting menu in Minas Gerais.
Memory, territory, and flavor in every course
Nestled in Lapinha da Serra, a small community in Santana do Riacho, Minas Gerais, Restaurante Casulo has built a culinary practice rooted in the ingredients and food culture of the Brazilian Cerrado. The tasting menu “Lapinha Memória Viva” — Living Memory of Lapinha — is chef Marina Leite‘s most complete expression of this work: a sequence of dishes shaped by local produce, oral histories, and traditional preparation methods.
The menu is not a creative exercise performed from the outside looking in. It is the result of years of fieldwork. Marina mapped backyard gardens, spoke with elderly residents, and identified the ingredients that truly define the community’s food identity.
Ingredients with a story to tell
At the core of the menu are red rice, black-eyed peas, black peanuts, capucha banana, pequi, murici, and jatobá — native and traditional ingredients of the Cerrado. Around 80% of Casulo’s ingredients come from local producers, giving the kitchen a rhythm dictated by seasonality and the land’s own availability.
This philosophy creates a kitchen that adapts to what exists, not the other way around. Ingredients once tied to subsistence farming now take on new forms: capucha banana appears in multiple preparations, jatobá becomes gnocchi, and red rice is reimagined as risotto — without losing its origins.
The Cerrado is not an aesthetic reference here. It is the actual foundation of the kitchen.
Food as preservation and local economy
Beyond the plates, Casulo actively encourages the cultivation of local ingredients and supports regional producers, creating a direct link between gastronomy and local economic development. By placing these ingredients at the center of the dining experience, the restaurant helps keep alive knowledge and growing practices that were slowly being forgotten.
The experience is rounded out with a curated selection of Minas Gerais wines, chosen to complement each course and reinforce the restaurant’s deeply territorial identity.
With “Lapinha Memória Viva”, Casulo positions itself not just as a restaurant, but as an ongoing project of research, authorship, and cultural preservation of the Cerrado.
Event Info
- Restaurante Casulo
- Rua Olhos d’Água, 01 – Lapinha da Serra, Santana do Riacho, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Open Tuesday through Sunday
- Reservations: +55 (31) 98408-0368
- Instagram: @casulolapinhadaserra
