After my last visit to Caju, a trendy Brazilian restaurant in Toronto’s Queen St West neighborhood, I became enamoured with their Moqueca stew, a spicy tomato-coconut milk broth served with fish and rice, that I attempted to make it at home by searching for similar recipes out there (see post: Moqueca Fish Stew with Rice) and requesting the recipe from Chef Mario Cassini, the owner and chef of Caju restaurant. He kindly provided me the recipe in response to my email request, which I also tried to make again (see post: Caju Moqueca Stew – Actual Restaurant Recipe). However, the most memorable thing that came out of these attempts was the chance to sit down with Chef Mario Cassini and talk to him about his restaurant and his unique Moqueca recipe. This talk gave me more insight into Brazilian food, his restaurant Caju, and tips on how to make a mean Moqueca Stew.

I met Chef Mario Cassini at Caju on cold wintry day in December. Despite it being smack in the middle of the holiday season, Chef Mario was kind enough to meet with me for almost 45 minutes. I started off asking him about his restaurant, Caju, and how he decided to open a Brazilian restaurant. I have noticed that there aren’t many Brazilian restaurants in Toronto, and I only knew of Brazilian steakhouses. He replied that first of all, he’s Brazilian, and knows that food. When he first opened Caju in December 2002, he saw that there weren’t any Brazilian restaurants like Caju, that were more upscale and catered to people outside of the Brazilian community. Also, at that time, fusion food was getting quite popular, so he decided to offer his fresh modern take on Brazilian classics and introduce it to the Canadian community.

Brazilian food is actually fusion in itself, since Brazil is made up of many different cultures. At its base, it’s Portugese food, with heavy emphasis on fish and pork. Then Africans came to Brazil and brought African influences to their food, such as spicy Malagueta peppers, coconut milk, and cassava. The Moqueca stew is a traditional stew, and there are actually 2 versions of it: Moqueca Capixaba from Espírito Santo state in the Southeast, and Moqueca Baiana from Bahia state in the Northeast. Moqueca Capixaba doesn’t have any coconut milk or Malagueta peppers in it and is simply a  tomato broth. The Moqueca Baiana has African influences, with coconut milk, Malagueta peppers and dende oil. This is the version Mario used to develop his Moqueca recipe. He removed the dende oil to make it lighter. He felt that the flavours in the Moqueca were so strong already that you didn’t really need the dende oil, which only added to the saturated fat content. He also uses a pan to cook it instead of the traditional clay pot, which he told me is heavy and not really necessary. The pan used to serve the Moqueca at Caju depicted in the above picture is actually the pan he uses to cook the Moqueca.  He explained that the traditional Moqueca is very rustic, and was originally a method of cooking over an open flame. Over the years, it gradually developed into this stew. So really, the Moqueca stew is a base where you can have many variations, using different spices and meats.

The last thing I asked was advice on cooking his Moqueca recipe, which I have detailed in my post on cooking his Moqueca recipe. Mario’s advice was to choose and cook your fish carefully. The fish should have a consistent thickness where it holds together well, such as halibut, grouper and monkfish. Thinner fish will flake easily so it’s easy to overcook it. He also emphasized the importance of the cilantro flavour and advised on using fresh cilantro instead of dried. These tips were certainly helpful and contributed to my success with his recipe!

I found Chef Mario to be very forthcoming in his advice and sharing of his recipes. He said he often gets requests from patrons for his recipes, and if he can, he will respond, though with being both the owner AND chef of his restaurant, that makes him a very busy man and it’s hard for him to respond immediately. I really appreciated his time in talking to me and the best thing was when he sent me home with his home-made cheese bread. Those are worth the trip to Caju alone!