Cacuaco - Angola will take part in a school lunch competition in Brazil, to be shown on the television channel ‘TV Aberta’ on 15 May.
The country will be represented by the municipality of Cacuaco (Luanda), through a community cook.
According to Cacuaco's deputy administrator for political, social and community issues, Isabel Vesse Salomão, the municipality of Cacuaco recently took part in recordings of the TV programme named “A Vida de Merendeira” in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during which it presented one of the country's typical dishes and múcua juice (made from the baobab tree fruit).
The fish sauce called Calulú as well as palm oil bean with porridge were the typical dishes presented by a team made up of community chef Maria Luísa Magalhães, who brought a recipe based on local products.
The government official justified the choice of menu by the high nutritional value, evidenced by the quality of food in the country's schools.
The result was satisfying because the cooks liked the recipe and ‘managed to replicate the calulú in its entirety’, she said.
In the elimination phase, she added, food products were distributed so that each of the three finalists could prepare two main courses and a dessert, based on individual creativity, in one hour.
The recording of the television programme took place between 15 and 18 April this year, during which various types of dishes were prepared, the basis of which is school meals in Brazil.
The programme is scheduled to be shown on 15 May 2024 on Brazilian TV Aberta station, and the presentation of the results of the initiative is scheduled to be out in November of this year, in the state of Brasilia.
The TV programme is an initiative promoted by Brazil's National Fund for the Development of Education (FNDE), with the aim of highlighting the fundamental role of cooks in school feeding, valuing a varied and healthy diet, as well as mobilising the community through food and nutrition education.
It is part of the cooperation project between the Brazilian CIN Agency and the World Food Programme's Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil and consists of audiovisual series broadcast on free-to-air TV, with the aim of highlighting and giving visibility to the role of community cooks in promoting healthy school meals.
Five regions of Brazil took part in the competition for the best school cook, namely the Centre-West (Mato Grosso state), Centre (Goiás), Northeast (Alagoas), Southwest (Minas Gerais) and South (Paraná), with Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe and Mozambique as guest countries.
The municipality of Cacuaco (Angola) has eight community kitchens and serves more than 500 people a day.
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