The World at your Table

The flavour of Trancoso

By Décio Galina

Chef and business owner Morena Leite, who grew up on the coast of Bahia, explains how she has fun with her two daughters in Trancoso

The origin of one of the most popular chefs in Brazil, Morena Leite, is Trancoso, which she insists on enjoying with her daughters: outdoor fun, contact with nature and the local population.

It's a place for you to leave your children to their own devices, in nature and in contact with Bahians, who are wonderful people. My childhood involved a lot of fruit, my memories are linked to the beach, swimming, jumping waves and going down the river. Trancoso is a collective backyard,” says the business owner and chef of Capim Santo, who has two daughters, Manuela and Júlia.

Morena’s parents – Fernando Antônio Corsi Leite, nicknamed Nando, and Sandra Marques (who have been married for 21 years) – are among the pioneers of one of the main coastal destinations in Brazil. Aboard a Gurgel car, pulling a small trailer with a fridge, a stove and a trunk, Nando and Sandra, recently graduated in architecture, arrived at the then inhospitable place, in the middle of 1981, with their baby, Morena.

“It was like Macondo,” says Sandra, comparing the vision of the Quadrado [the Square], adorned with the church of São João Batista at one end, to the scenario described by Gabriel García Márquez in his book, One Hundred Years of Solitude. “There was no electricity, water, telephone, priest or police.”

To survive, Morena’s mother started cooking, even with little experience. Alongside her friend, Dora Miranda, they rented a bar and started selling simple dishes in the summer of 1982. There was no menu: they served whatever was fresh that day in clay bowls. Dora made acarajé and moqueca. It didn’t take long for the São João bar to become a meeting point for the young adventurers who were arriving in Trancoso. “We had a battery-operated record player and some great records – it was a constant party,” says Sandra.

The movement grew until, in 1985, they opened the Capim Santo restaurant. Morena recalls that

“in the kitchen of my house, many stories were being told. I realized that, from food, I could meet people and share knowledge.”

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Read the interview with Morena Leite below, and her experiences with her children in Trancoso.

What are your childhood memories of Trancoso?
Lots of fruit in the yard with my mother. Jackfruit, mangaba, carambola, acerola and jabuticaba… And also, a strong affectionate memory of my maternal grandmother (Ione). For me, food has always meant affection.

What games did you play as a child?
Very connected to the beach. Swimming, jumping waves, we had a pier to jump from. We also went down the Trancoso River. The village was a collective backyard. I was raised not only by my parents, but also by many of their friends.

When did you decide that your life would be dedicated to gastronomy?
I went to live in England when I was 15. Then, I spent a weekend in Pais with a half-Cambodian, half-French friend, and saw that France lived and breathed gastronomy. I saw that they did not eat to live; they lived to eat. It was then that I learned about the Cordon Bleu school [where Morena would later graduate as a chef and pastry chef]. I realized that this was what I wanted to study.

How did your family take this news? Did they encourage you?
My father thought it was okay, unlike my mother. She was reticent. After all, I was never a child who loved to eat and I had no connection with the taste of food. For her, a chef has to love to eat, and I wasn’t so good with a fork.

When and where did you open your first restaurant?
I returned to Brazil in 1999 to work at the Capim Santo that my mother had opened in Vila Madalena. I stayed there until 2004. Then we closed it and I later moved to Jardins, where I opened another Capim Santo. I stopped being just the chef and became a business owner and entrepreneur [Morena owned six restaurants].

What is the ingredient that can’t be missing in the kitchen?
Love. Smiles, laughter and excited people. The main ingredient of good food is happy and connected people. A person in love can transform a free-range egg into a delicacy; a disconnected person can take the most expensive tuna in the world and make it tasteless.

What does Trancoso taste like?
Fruity. There’s a lot of fruit here. That’s why I have this bittersweet and tropical cuisine.

Why is Trancoso a good destination for families with children?
It’s a place for you to leave your children to their own devices, with nature and the local people. Bahians are wonderful: they feel equal to everyone else. And I love that my daughters live with normal people. Here, you will make friends and interact, without worrying about where you are from. I always interacted the same with my nanny’s daughters and the children who arrived by helicopter for the weekend. The Bahian is very welcoming. And the cool thing is to enjoy the ‘real Trancoso’ and to feel the essence of the place, the freedom to play ball games in the Quadrado, climb trees and run… Quite different from staying inside a resort that could be anywhere in the world.

What do you recommend for a family going to Trancoso for the first time?
I have a three-year-old daughter [Júlia] and a 13-year-old daughter [Manuela]. With the older one, we kayak down the river. She likes to ride horses, she has a quad bike, a bicycle, capoeira classes and cheese classes with Helinho [he has a buffalo farm and makes cheese], sushi and dressmaking classes.

What are your favorite beaches in the region?
I really like Rio da Barra and Itaquena: two opposites, one heading towards Porto Seguro and the other towards Praia do Espelho.

Did you do anything different during the quarantine?
I took the opportunity to study a lot, redo my recipes and my cakes… It wasn’t wasted time. I cooked a lot here at the Capim Solidário to help those in need; I tested and organized recipes. And I took the opportunity to take a deep breath, just for myself.