Meet Muqueca Chef Fátima “Fafa” Langa

By Margarita Martinez

July 13, 2012


Fátima “Fafa” Langa was born in Espírito Santo, on the southeast coast of Brazil. Early in her adult life, she moved to New York City, where she worked as a tour guide for visiting tourists.

Brazilian clay pots

The second phase of her life began when her husband, Antonio Gomes, was visiting Cambridge Massachusetts. Fafa had always dreamed of opening her own Brazilian restaurant, and in the area between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Antonio saw a little Brazilian buffet up for sale. It seemed like the perfect blank canvas upon which to create Fafa’s dream.

The buffet was transformed into Muqueca, which aims to give Americans a taste of real Brazilian cuisine.  It uses a different kind of cooking that emphasizes long cooking times and indigenous tools. Fafa can take an entire day to make one pie filled with seafood and vegetables. She orders clay pots directly from Brazil to use in the kitchen. The Association of Clay Pots of Goiabeiras in Espirito Santo, which has made these pots for almost four centuries, is one of the only authentic sources for these pots.

*****

Watch Neighborhood Kitchens online to find out more about Muqueca, part of Inman Square in Cambridge.



VISIT NEIGHBORHOOD KITCHENS