Janaína Torres Rueda

A Casa do Porco, São Paulo

Brazilian culinary powerhouse with a social conscience

Janaína Torres Rueda is a true paulistana – born and raised in downtown São Paulo and now the chef-owner of several award-winning gastronomic businesses in the same neighbourhood where she grew up. An entrepreneur by nature, she left school at 14 to work in the city’s nightclubs, instinctively attracted by the hospitality industry as a way to be in touch with her community.

Torres Rueda went on to work as a sommelier and ambassador for a drinks brand until she met future husband Jefferson Rueda, then the chef of restaurant Pomodori. In 2008, shortly after the couple’s first son was born, she opened O Bar da Dona Onça, a casual neighbourhood spot in the iconic Copan building in São Paulo’s city centre. It was inspired by her nickname – Dona Onça, or Lady Jaguar in Portuguese – and it was here she began to lay the foundations of her vision for democratic gastronomy.

The bar was so successful that it funded the launch of the couple’s fine dining restaurant, A Casa do Porco, in 2015 – then, just a year later, the pig-focused eatery earned a spot in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants. Since then, it has become one of the most sought-after gastronomic experiences in the region, offering inspired tasting menus at affordable prices (US$60 for the full eight-course experience) and most recently ranking No.12 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023.

In 2018, Torres Rueda began to focus less on the restaurant’s operations and more on the culinary proposal. She introduced her own version of feijoada – Brazil’s iconic pork stew – to the tasting menu, recognising the significance of this household staple in Brazil’s ancestral African and Portuguese colonial culture and wanting to give it the value it deserved in high gastronomy. It quickly became a hit.

Since the couple separated in 2021, Torres Rueda has continued to spend more time at the restaurants while Jefferson focuses on Sítio Rueda, their farm outside São Paulo where their pigs are reared. They launched A Casa do Porco’s latest menu, Somos de Carne e Osso (We are Flesh and Bone), to great acclaim in 2023, inspired by their own stories of human failure and success.

Torres Rueda is more than a chef. She’s also an activist, a sommelier, a samba teacher and a mother of two, passionately dedicated to making premium dining more inclusive and accessible. She worked with São Paulo’s government to train school cooks and improved the nutrition of 1.8 million children, replacing processed ingredients with fresh, healthy options. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she mobilised thousands of Brazilian chefs and hospitality workers to pressure the government for vital financial support, while she and Jefferson also fed the hungry during the crisis.

In 2023, she added Merenda da Cidade to her roster of projects, offering locals nutritious meals for just 40 reais (US$8) every lunchtime. She continues to helm various other businesses with Jefferson, including ice cream parlour Sorveteria do Centro and cold cuts brand Porco Real. With increased recognition for her work coming from across the world, Torres Rueda can now add the new title as Latin America’s Best Female Chef 2023 to her impressive portfolio.

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