Palmirinha reminded me of meetings with Julia Child – 05/17/2023 – Josimar Melo

The news of the death of the cook and TV presenter Palmirinha, on the 7th, took me on a journey — in time and space.

She was probably the last representative of a lineage of popular cooking presenters who, on air, on open TV, mirrored what their audience wanted (and felt they could) be, at least in the kitchen.

A story that had its greatest impact 61 years ago, with the debut of the iconic Julia Child (1912-2004) on American public TV – which brings my memory back to the United States.

I only saw his shows much later, on the internet. But I got to attend, in loco, one of his classes (always fun!) at an event in Aspen, Colorado – a city/ski resort that is beautiful in the summer, when the mountains turn green and the sun, in addition to shining, heats up. This is when arts, sports, music and gastronomy festivals take place. It was in one of these, in the early 1990s, that I saw the mythical Júlia in action.

I also found it on other occasions –giant, shrill-, more privately, in press rooms at events in North America. And that’s why I can say that that Julia Child style on TV –expansive, clumsy, with an almost naive naturalness— wasn’t a character: it was herself.

Which brings us to her incarnation in Brazil, the presenter Ofélia Anunciato (1924-1998), who enchanted viewers for decades on open TV. Interestingly, this week I received, from an English bookshop, an advertisement for some cookbooks, including “A Taste of Brazil – author: Melo, Josimar”. For £35 (or a lot less, the used one), not bad.

But it is actually a version by an American publisher of the book “Ofélia – O Sabor do Brasil”, beautifully edited in Brazil by the DBA and awarded with the Jabuti, and where I only gave the presentation; the book is her recipes. With ten years at TV Tupi and another 30 at Bandeirantes, Ofélia conquered the world through the pages of a book.

Like Julia Child, Ofélia appeared on screen as in real life: a little clumsy, very people like us, and it was this spontaneity that enchanted the audience, made up mostly of housewives who in their lives lived the vicissitudes of everyday life in kitchen.

Then came Palmirinha, which sent me on another trip: I only met her very briefly, in Ribeirão Preto, at the literary fair where we both spoke (but separately). Her fascination was, once again, in her authenticity: a simple woman with a long history, for whom cooking was never a hobby, but a necessity, a means of surviving and feeding (in every sense) her daughters. The clumsier, the more mistakes she made live, the more she won the public’s sympathy and complicity.

But why would she be the last of that lineage? It turns out that cuisine grew, became part of the larger world of gastronomy. If before only those with professional ambitions wanted to learn techniques and knowledge beyond the dish, today the non-professional public, the amateur who likes to cook or eat, is increasing and becoming more demanding. Especially on cable, the pattern of recipe presenters is less and less the stereotypical housewife.

This even leads to the creation of presenters who live characters, like actors. But, luckily, in the current profusion of cooking shows, there are still those that are spontaneous (even if now more sophisticated). Which show to draw knowledge from the bottom of the heart (and from the pans). These are the ones who have the most empathy with an audience that may like more refined information, but also understands that good food cannot be snobbish.

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