Palmirinha was an authentic grandmother in the middle of the ‘affective kitchen’ of arak – 07/05/2023 – Cozinha Bruta

I was with Palmirinha for an hour, more or less, on the recording of a program on the extinct Globo radio station in São Paulo.

Palmirinha was what it seemed to be. She was what she was. She didn’t play a character. She was authentic, which perhaps explains her success at a time when cooking shows for housewives were either retiring or getting a makeover — with male chefs replacing the grandmothers.

For an hour or so I was with an archetypal grandmother. With grandmotherly clothes, grandmotherly manners and unusual friendliness. Palmirinha led a heavy metal life, abused by her mother and husband, but she reacted to violence in a waltz, foxtrot and good-mouthed rhythm.

Palmirinha treated everyone, without distinction, as if they were her grandchildren. It didn’t take more than an hour or so to realize that. I, who am an atheist, almost asked for her blessing when I went to say goodbye to her.

Palmirinha was the last of a cast of presenters whose mission was to teach recipes to women who needed to feed their families and earn extra income without leaving home. She came from the same lineage as Ofélia Ramos Anunciato, from “Ofélia’s Wonderful Kitchen”, a classic from the 1970s and 80s.

It was a feast of sausage, meat pancakes, cold tuna pie, hot chicken pie, oven-baked rice, stuffed zucchini, walnut cake, pineapple foam and gelatin mosaic.

All the homemade and somewhat old-fashioned repertoire that could also be seen in the pages of Claudia Cozinha magazine, under the baton of the greatest of all culinary specialists, Bettina Orrico.

Palmirinha arrived all grandma when the world had already decided –quite correctly– that it was absurd to teach domestic tasks to women “at home” on open TV.

Obviously, the culinary program style persisted in the morning program, with a series of cosmetic and structural adjustments. They brought men, like Edu Guedes, to show that no, that was not a housewife thing. They employed increasingly empowered women, from Ana Maria Braga to Rita Lobo.

For the rest, the emphasis on cooking shows turned to celebrity chefs and their often impractical recipes: Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Claude Troigros, Alex Atala.

And Palmirinha. Grandma was still there, steady as a rock, and everyone liked her.

Palmirinha used to cook traditional grandmother’s food when it became a “trend” in the sector, the hollow marketing appeal of expressions such as “affective cuisine” – worn out by university-trained chefs who serve pumpkin broth for starters and coconut manjar for dessert.

People are not stupid, despite all evidence to the contrary. They realized that Palmirinha was real.

The blessing, grandma. God be with you.

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