Chef with a passion for food.

Izadora Ribeiro, 35, thought she would be an architect. But it took only a few years for her to give up the profession and join the first gastronomy class at Senac in São Paulo, in 2004. During her studies, she worked as a waitress at the Ritz restaurant and as an assistant in restaurant critic Josimar Melo’s restaurant guide. She worked as a trainee in the kitchen of Bistrô Charlô, but did not identify with the repetitive daily routine and the need to follow recipes. It was then that she packed her bags and moved to Paris, where she studied fashion at the Berçot Studio and interned with renowned stylist Marc Jacobs. It was in this fashion universe that she discovered her great passion for research – which, some years later, she took to the kitchen. From there he left to create a project in which he offered closed dinners in his house. It was so successful that the project grew and evolved. Izadora sought to connect with environmental and political issues in the food chain and started to reduce the amount of animal protein and work with fresh and organic products. Renamed Isla, the project gained a fixed address in the Pinheiros neighborhood in August 2018. In 2020 during the pandemic he created the project “Fighting Kitchen” where he distributed more than 15,000 meals to homeless people and high vulnerability communities in the city of São Paulo. The project raised money through an online collective coworker to make it all possible. Izadora continued to buy from her suppliers, who are small producers, and kept the jobs of her 11 employees without any reduction in salary.

In July 2020, he created a new brand focused on delivery, this time mixing cuisines from Asia. Despite much success a few accidents and life decisions made Izadora stop her two brands for a moment. Now she moves on with new, as yet undisclosed projects.

Sustainability, pickles and fermentation, food history, slow food movement, soul cooking at home, seasonal ingredients, middle eastern cooking