Cocktails with – Fernanda Pinheiro
As this newspaper kicks off its Road to Rio, we sit with São LuÃs native, Fernanda Pinheiro, the CEO of Petrini Filmes, and a chef. The Stony Hill resident paints for us a persuasive composite of her South American homeland, leaving us with a beguiling daydream of just how this summer will take shape.
What’s your favourite drink?
Rum and coconut water
What are the flavours that define your Brasil?
The fruit flavours of Açaà and Cupuaçu
We’ve only got 24 hours in Rio, seat us at your favourite culinary destination.
Confeitaria Colombo in Copacabana.
Bags all packed for our trip to Rio, what’s the one thing we might be forgetting to include?
Your bathing suit!
What are the key components of the Carioca lifestyle?
Easy to make friends, good energies, good vibes, to have fun with a lot of friends at the beach, or anywhere with friends and mostly all with music. Can’t have anything without music.
Marcel Camus’s Orfeu Negro (1959) or Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund’s City of God/Cidade de Deus (2002)?
Orfeu Negro, but would add Cidade de Deus as my second best. Both are good.
Brasil’s carnaval has been described as ‘the greatest show on earth’. How has it shaped your sense of self as a woman?
Carnaval is part of our culture, and with it comes the culture of the beautiful body shapes of the Brazilian women that are displayed with exuberance naturally, and without any preconception. Freedom of expression in a happy medium.
Is a world without borders, the ultimate utopia, or a recipe for disaster?
The ultimate utopia.
Upon being invited into the hearth of someone’s home, what is the one responsibility the guest has implicitly agreed to?
Always, the guest is grateful for the invitation and will as soon as they are able to, return the favour. You cannot go to someone else’s home without doing the same for the other. In Brazil, it is very common that the homeowner will do everything that the guest wishes, so that they may feel as if they are in their own house. Hospitality and generosity towards others is a Brazilian way of life.
What’s the one token of sentiment that travels with you everywhere?
Curiosity to find out about other cultures and people.
What cultural attitude have you enthusiastically adopted from The Rock ?
Jamaica, no problem!
