I Left My Heart in Bahia

He says it gently, almost shyly, as if sharing something tender rather than triumphant:
“I left my heart in Bahia.”

And when Berimbau’s Chef Victor speaks of Moqueca, you realize this is not poetry — it is truth.

Chef Victor (Image: Serafina Marketing via Berimbau Brazilian Table)

Born in São Paulo and cooking professionally since 2000, Victor’s journey has been both disciplined and deeply personal. He trained under the legendary Laurent Suaudeau at Brazil’s pioneering culinary school, absorbing the rigor of classical technique before helping guide Brazil’s Bocuse d’Or team to international acclaim. Michelin recognition followed him in California. Yet for all the accolades, it was not the competition stage that shaped him most.

It was the sea and a love of food.

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Three seasons as a young cook in a beachfront hotel in Bahia. Warm air drifting through open windows. Laughter from the sand. The rhythm of the tide sets the tempo for the kitchen. And always, on the stove, a clay pot of Moqueca.

Inside that pot: halibut, shrimp, squid, mussels. Coconut milk swirling with dendê oil, the color of sunset. Tomatoes, melting into sweetness. Roasted peppers. Garlic. Ginger. Lime. African roots folded lovingly into Brazilian soil.

“You put everything together — including lots of love,” he says. “Turn the fire on. Once it boils, the flavors melt. If you cook the fish perfectly — not overcooked — it’s simple. Super great.”

He calls it simple.

But what he really means is honest.

At Berimbau Brazilian Table — the vibrant vision of restaurateur Mario de Matos — Brazil’s rhythm hums softly through the dining room. Named for the berimbau instrument, the restaurant carries samba spirit and sculptural Brazilian midcentury calm. At the Caipirinha Bar, lime and Leblon cachaça sparkle like summer afternoons that refuse to end. Upstairs, soon to come, a bar with live Bosa Nova music.

(Image: Serafina Marketing via Berimbau Brazilian Table)

And then, there is the Coxinha — a golden, pear-shaped croquette filled with pulled chicken and creamy Catupiry, served with Berimbau’s house hot sauce. A childhood memory wrapped in crispness. Victor once ate nine in half a day simply to find the best one. Curiosity, even then, guided him.

“I have a connection with food,” he says. “I eat everything. I love everything.”

I believe him.

Because when Moqueca arrives at the table, with steam rising like coastal mist, conversations pause. The first spoonful is velvet and brightness at once. Coconut richness. Citrus lift. Tender seafood barely kissed by heat.

It is not complicated food.

It is emotional food.

Moqueca & Memory (for two)

Berimbau-Brazilian-Table — (Image: Serafina Marketing via Berimbau Brazilian Table)

The Full Composition by Executive Chef Victor Vasconcellos

Seafood

90 g halibut, cut into generous cubes
230 g squid, sliced into rings
tiger shrimp, peeled and deveined
45 g mussels, cleaned

Moqueca Broth

250 ml coconut milk
50 g onion, finely diced
15 g garlic, minced
250 g ripe tomatoes, chopped
25 g roasted red bell pepper (peeled and seeded)
25 g roasted yellow bell pepper (peeled and seeded)
5 g fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Juice of ½ lemon
120 ml tucupi
100 ml shrimp-infused fish stock
60 ml dendê oil
30 ml olive oil
½ bunch cilantro (stems chopped, leaves reserved)

Method

Build the Base

In a heavy clay or cast-iron pot, warm the dendê oil until fragrant and glowing.
Add the garlic, letting it bloom gently, then the onion. Soften without browning.
Stir in tomatoes, roasted peppers, grated ginger, and chopped cilantro stems. Allow them to melt together slowly.
Deglaze with tucupi and shrimp stock, lifting every aromatic note from the pot.
Add the coconut milk and bring to a gentle boil.

Then the Sea

Nestle the halibut, shrimp, squid, and mussels into the broth.
Cook carefully and briefly — just until the fish turns opaque and the shrimp blush pink. Never rush this moment.
If necessary, remove the seafood while the broth reduces slightly and gains body.
Finish with fresh lemon juice and a scatter of cilantro leaves.

Serving

Serve steaming hot with coconut rice or white rice — and always with farofa.

Farofa is essential. Not garnish, but harmony. This toasted blend of fat and cassava flour absorbs the golden broth, offering texture and warmth, linking the richness of coconut and dendê to the comforting simplicity of rice.

And when you take that first bite, you understand.

You taste Bahia.
You taste sunlight.
You taste a young cook by the sea, stirring a pot with joy — never imagining it would one day travel to New York, carrying his heart with it, still warm, still glowing.