Helena Rizzo is the Brazilian chef-patron of Maní in São Paulo, a one-Michelin-star restaurant that has been one of the defining rooms of contemporary Brazilian cuisine since it opened in 2006. Born in Porto Alegre on 6 December 1978, Rizzo studied architecture before leaving to work as a model, moved to São Paulo and then into restaurant kitchens in the late 1990s, and opened Maní with then-husband Daniel Redondo and model Fernanda Lima at age 27.
Maní has held one Michelin star since 2015 and retained it in the Michelin Guide Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo 2025 announced in May 2025. Rizzo was named the World’s Best Female Chef 2014 by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Since 2021 she has also been a judge on MasterChef Brasil alongside Erick Jacquin and Henrique Fogaça.
TL;DR
- Brazilian chef born 6 December 1978 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- Chef-owner of Maní in Jardim Paulistano, São Paulo (opened 2006)
- One Michelin star since 2015, retained in the 2025 Michelin Guide
- World’s Best Female Chef 2014 by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
- MasterChef Brasil judge since 2021; former architecture student and model
Helena Rizzo key facts
| Born | 6 December 1978, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Main restaurant | Maní, Rua Joaquim Antunes 210, Jardim Paulistano, São Paulo |
| Michelin stars | One at Maní since 2015 (retained 2025) |
| Style | Contemporary Brazilian; organic produce; modern techniques |
| Training | Roanne (São Paulo, with Claude Troisgros and Emmanuel Bassoleil), Sadler (Italy), El Celler de Can Roca (Spain) |
| Other ventures | Manioca (Bib Gourmand), Padoca do Maní, Casa Manioca, MasterChef Brasil judge |
Early life and training of Helena Rizzo
Rizzo was born in Porto Alegre in southern Brazil on 6 December 1978. Her mother Ivone is a teacher and artist; her father Roberto is a civil engineer. She spent her school years in Porto Alegre and her summers in the beach town of Torres, where she earned pocket money selling tuna sandwiches and bottled water on the beach with her cousin, and ran a small summer bar called Siroco. The bar lasted one season.
She enrolled in the architecture programme at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) but left after one semester. In the mid-1990s she began working as a model, and in 1997 her friend, model Fernanda Lima, invited her to move to São Paulo. In the same year she started working at Roanne, the classic São Paulo restaurant owned by Claude Troisgros and Emmanuel Bassoleil. Roanne was her first serious kitchen experience. She initially did not see cooking as a career but quickly discovered she was more engaged on the line than she had ever been on a modelling shoot.
She spent the late 1990s and early 2000s in Europe on a series of stages. She worked at Sadler in Italy, then at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, under the Roca brothers. The Roca period was formative: she has cited a meal at El Celler de Can Roca as the moment she realised what contemporary cuisine could be. In Italy she met Daniel Redondo, a Catalan chef who would become her first husband and creative partner. The two returned to São Paulo in 2006 to open Maní.
Helena Rizzo career timeline
- 1978: Born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul
- Mid-1990s: Begins architecture studies at PUCRS; leaves after one semester; starts modelling
- 1997: Moves to São Paulo; begins cooking at Roanne under Claude Troisgros and Emmanuel Bassoleil
- Late 1990s-early 2000s: European stages at Sadler (Italy) and El Celler de Can Roca (Spain)
- 2006: Returns to São Paulo and opens Maní with then-husband Daniel Redondo and Fernanda Lima
- 2007: Opens Casa Manioca events space
- 2013: Veuve Clicquot Latin America’s Best Female Chef at Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants
- 2014: Named World’s Best Female Chef by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants; Maní ranked No. 36 in the world and No. 2 in South America
- 2015: Maní awarded its first Michelin star in the inaugural Michelin Guide Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; opens Padoca do Maní and Restaurante Manioca; marries musician Bruno Kayapy of Macaco Bong
- 2015: Daughter Manoela born
- 2017-2019: Manioca wins Bib Gourmand three consecutive years
- 2017: Belgian chef Willem Vandeven joins Maní as co-chef
- 2018: Judge on Netflix’s The Final Table (Brazil episode)
- 2019: Food and Wine lists Maní among the 30 best restaurants in the world
- 2021: Joins MasterChef Brasil as judge, replacing Paola Carosella
- 2025: Maní retains its Michelin star in the Michelin Guide Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo 2025 (announced May 2025)
Helena Rizzo signature style: contemporary Brazilian
Maní was one of the first São Paulo restaurants to serve techno-emotional cuisine in the Adrià sense, applying spherification, foams and other modern techniques to ingredients from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Amazon and Cerrado. Rizzo has been explicit that the starting point is always a Brazilian ingredient, about 90% of which is organic: jabuticaba, cupuaçu, cashew, castanha do Pará, pequi, mandioca, Pará heart-of-palm, Atlantic seafood. The Roca and Adrià-era European techniques are tools, not aesthetics.
The restaurant occupies a small residential house in Jardim Paulistano, one of the leafier parts of São Paulo. Three interconnecting rooms are finished in white and natural wood, with handcrafted textured walls, pergolas of intertwined grape-tree branches, and a central open-plan kitchen. Service is deliberately warm and unfussy, which sets it apart from the more formal dining rooms in the city. Since 2017 Rizzo has worked closely with Belgian chef Willem Vandeven, formerly of Hof van Cleve in Belgium, as co-chef.
Rizzo still sketches dishes in her notebook and occasionally paints directly on the walls of Maní, a habit that comes from her architecture and fine-art background. She has designed two album covers for her husband’s rock band Macaco Bong. She spends six months of the year filming MasterChef Brasil and manages the restaurant in parallel with Vandeven running day-to-day kitchen operations.
Notable dishes at Maní
Several Maní dishes have become reference points in contemporary Brazilian cuisine. The Atlantic Forest salad, with passion fruit vinaigrette and charcoal-infused oil, is the restaurant’s most-photographed course and a direct reference to the Mata Atlântica rainforest. The jabuticaba cold soup with cachaça-steamed crayfish applies Spanish cold-soup technique to a Brazilian native fruit. Rizzo’s version of moqueca fish stew strips the traditional coconut-milk seafood stew down to its essentials. Cashew ceviche uses the pseudo-fruit of the cashew rather than the nut. And foie gras praline plays classical French technique against Brazilian dessert traditions. The seasonal vegetable courses, which change with the Atlantic Forest’s rainy and dry seasons, rotate most frequently.
Helena Rizzo awards and recognition
- 2013: Veuve Clicquot Latin America’s Best Female Chef (Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants)
- 2014: World’s Best Female Chef (The World’s 50 Best Restaurants); Maní No. 36 in the world
- 2014: Maní No. 2 in South America, behind Alex Atala’s D.O.M.
- 2015: First Michelin star at Maní (inaugural Michelin Guide Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo)
- 2017-2019: Manioca wins Bib Gourmand three consecutive years
- 2019: Food and Wine lists Maní among the 30 best restaurants in the world
- 2025: Michelin star retained at Maní (Michelin Guide Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo 2025)
Helena Rizzo impact on Brazilian gastronomy
Rizzo’s most concrete contribution is to have extended what Brazilian contemporary cuisine could look like in a São Paulo restaurant. Before Maní opened in 2006, the reference points for modern Brazilian cooking were Alex Atala‘s D.O.M. (Amazonian ingredients in a formal fine-dining frame) and the Northeastern regionalism movement. Maní opened a third register: Atlantic Forest and southern Brazilian produce, European technique drawn from Can Roca and Sadler, and a deliberately casual, neighborhood-scale dining room. The 2014 World’s Best Female Chef award was the first such award for a Latin American chef.
The second contribution is the Maní group’s restaurant multi-concept structure in São Paulo. Manioca (Bib Gourmand three years running) took the Maní DNA into casual pricing; Padoca do Maní reinvented the São Paulo bakery format with naturally fermented bread; Casa Manioca operates as an events space. The model influenced a generation of São Paulo chefs, many of whom have gone on to open Michelin-starred or Bib Gourmand rooms of their own.
Her generational peers in the São Paulo fine-dining scene include Ivan Ralston (two Michelin stars at Tuju), Luiz Filipe Souza (two stars at Evvai) and the younger generation of chefs at KANOE, Aiô and Petí. Her trajectory outside Brazil connects her to the Roca school and to Latin American peers like Gaggan Anand who also trained at El Bulli/Roca before opening their own rooms. Within the Brazilian context she sits alongside Alex Atala as one of the two chefs who brought São Paulo to international lists in the 2010s.
Helena Rizzo FAQ
How many Michelin stars does Maní have?
One Michelin star, held since 2015 and retained in the Michelin Guide Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo 2025, announced in May 2025. Maní was among the first restaurants starred when the Michelin Guide launched its Brazilian edition in 2015.
Where is Maní?
At Rua Joaquim Antunes 210 in Jardim Paulistano, a residential neighbourhood in the western part of São Paulo. The restaurant is in a small converted house with three interconnecting rooms and an open kitchen.
Did Helena Rizzo go to culinary school?
No formal culinary degree. She studied architecture at PUCRS for one semester before leaving. Her kitchen training came through on-the-job work at Roanne in São Paulo under Claude Troisgros and Emmanuel Bassoleil, followed by European stages at Sadler in Italy and El Celler de Can Roca in Spain.
Is Helena Rizzo on MasterChef Brasil?
Yes, since 2021. She replaced Paola Carosella as a judge on the Band TV version of MasterChef Brasil and appears alongside Erick Jacquin and Henrique Fogaça. She spends roughly six months of the year filming the show, with kitchen operations at Maní handled by co-chef Willem Vandeven during that period.
What other restaurants does Helena Rizzo run?
Maní is the flagship. She also runs Manioca (a casual restaurant with Bib Gourmand recognition), Padoca do Maní (a naturally fermented bakery-café), and Casa Manioca (an events space). All are part of Grupo Maní in São Paulo.
What is next for Helena Rizzo
Following the 2025 Michelin star retention and continuing MasterChef Brasil judging role, Rizzo has signalled that the immediate focus remains on Maní in São Paulo and the Grupo Maní restaurants. She has not announced international expansion. Her public Instagram (@helenarizzo) is the best source for current menu updates and appearances.
