The rise of Fogo de Chão – the meat-mad Brazilian churrascaria chain – incinerates the contention that our diets have shifted from animal protein to plant-based everything.
That’s certainly true for some folks, perhaps even many. But considering the crowds that pack the several branches of Fogo, meat-eating is far from extinct. We like our beef, served in portions that stagger the digestion.
Fogo de Chão is a monument to meat, with an entire kitchen dedicated to massive cuts, dripping juices and cooked in a fashion that dates back 300 years or more.
The original branches of Fogo de Chão are in Brazil – three locations in São Paulo, one in Porto Alegre. In 1997, the first North American Fogo opened in Dallas, followed by branches in Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and throughout Southern California – first in Beverly Hills, followed by Downtown Los Angeles, El Segundo, Irvine, San Diego and now Pasadena, with another branch coming soon to Woodland Hills.
All the Fogos are dramatic structures, and the Pasadena operation does not disappoint. It’s dominated by a wall of meat that sizzles from morning till night – a beacon for carnivores, serving an estimated 30,000 pounds of meat a month at every branch. In this case, Fogo sits in a bank building dating back to 1929, on the edge of The Paseo, in a space that in the past has been home to Lawry’s and BJ’s.
There’s something about the culinary karma of this location that demands Big Food.
The meat is treated like a culinary object of desire – obsessively marinated, elegantly skewered, cooked to the point of perfection with juices dripping, and a crust to die for! And then, it’s served at the tables in a style known as espeto corrido – “continuous service,” which is Portuguese for “all-you-can-eat” – by a team of what I’ve been told are actual gauchos, in from the Pampas.
The gauchos are meat mavens, who have to know how to do everything: How to butcher the meat, how to flavor the…
Read the full article here
