See the New Stars in the 2019 Michelin Guide for Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo 2019

Despite a vibrant fine dining scene, the Michelin Guide for Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo 2019 includes the same amount of Michelin starred restaurants, just 18, as it did last year, with three losing stars and three gaining new stars. For the fifth year in a row, no Brazilian restaurant made the Guide’s three star rating.

New Stars

The new arrivals are in the one-star category. In Rio de Janeiro, Cipriani, an Italian restaurant by Chef Nello Cassese from Napoli gets the nod, while tasting menu venue Oteque also got Michelin recognition with a star. The third new Michelin star was awarded to another Italian restaurant, Evvai, São Paulo, bringing the total number of one star restaurants to 15. 10 in São Paulo and 5 in Rio.

São Paulo also surpasses Rio with two restaurants with two Michelin stars – D.O.M. by Chef Alex Atala and Tuju by Chef Ivan Ralston. Rio’s Oro, by Chef Felipe Bronze remains the only two star restaurant in the city.

São Paulo clearly has the edge on Rio de Janeiro when it comes to fine dining according to the Michelin guide. However with the guide’s Bib Gourmand listings, São Paulo claims 39 to Rio’s 11, there is plenty of activity in a vibrant and evolving scene. There’s definitely more to come from these two Brazilian cities.

“Today, Brazil’s culinary scene is not only made up of well-established chefs, but also by more and more young chefs who are fully committed to developing healthy and sustainable gastronomy,” says Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the MICHELIN Guides, noting that many restaurants are adorned with plush gardens, as well as solar panels to transform food waste into compost, on site. “These are all actions that, beyond the product used, allows their institutions to be part of a sustainable and environmentally responsible approach over the long term.”