Limitless meat so delectable you need two people
to prepare it? Find out why Fogo de Chão's meat tastes so good.
If you're not up on your Portuguese, literally translated Fogo de Chão means
"fire on the ground." To Brazilians, It's a cooking style special to their country
that has spawned an entire category of restaurants in North America.
As Fogo de Chão Fort Lauderdale General Manager Wanderson Oliveira told Mashed -
Oliveira went on to further explain that Fogo de Chão's gaúchos understand this tradition and
take great pride in continuing it inside the restaurant, no matter the location.
"We wanna feed people, we wanna feed you, ah, 'try this, try that,
what do you think about this?' and we do that with passion."
Each of Fogo de Chão's cuts is rated USDA Choice or higher, according to both Oliveira
and Fogo de Chão Southeast Regional Director Rudimar Bonfada , a sure sign of quality that
ensures every steak that glides by you is some of the best beef in the country.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's website, beef is graded in order to make business
transactions easier, so purchasers know the quality of beef they're paying for before
it shows up at the door. USDA inspectors visit slaughterhouses and packing facilities to evaluate
the product, rating beef as prime, choice, or select. Prime is the top grade you'd find at
high end steakhouses. Next up is choice, which USDA describes as still a very high-quality cut,
only with less marbling. Select is the lowest grade, and though still very good,
it has the least marbling and is the leanest of the three. Beyond that,
producers make ungraded and commercial beef, which are typically store-brand cuts.
Once the meat is selected, it arrives at Fogo de Chão and is
placed in refrigerated storage. According to Wanderson Oliveira,
boxes upon boxes of steaks are delivered two to three times a week. Fogo de Chão then ages
the meat for 21 days to enhance and concentrate its flavor before it's prepped for the grill.
Oliveira explained that the amount of beef his restaurant orders is based on
expected reservations and how many cuts each restaurant goes through. It's then placed in
rotating storage so the steaks that have been aged the longest are near the front.
This ensures every steak that's served out on the restaurant floor has been properly aged,
but never left in longer than it should be.
Most of what an average Fogo de Chão guest sees of the restaurant's gauchos
is their skillful slicing of steaming cuts of fresh beef,
and their intricate explanation of what each bit of steak is. But their job is far more
than that. Two shifts of gauchos work every day the restaurant is open, with assigned
pairs responsible for specific cuts of meat. As General Manager Wandering Oliveira told Mashed -
So, for example, if one pair is assigned bacon-wrapped chicken,
the early gaucho will spend most of his shift prepping and skewering the meat,
and possibly putting the first few skewers on the grill. The later gaucho will be
responsible for cooking, watching, and serving the meat during dinner.
While this might sound simple, it involves an intense amount of training and expertise,
which has gauchos training for about a month to get prepared.
"Our gauchos are Southern Brazilian chefs. They've been trained to cook,
to prepare and to serve the meats."
As Oliveira explained -
Though rodizio originates from a style of cooking that was simply lighting a fire on the ground,
Fogo de Chão has elevated the experience by utilizing a special grill and specific
charcoal. According to Rudimar Bonfada, each restaurant uses a special lump charcoal
that ensures the temperature is right for the proper cooking of the steaks, telling Mashed -
The grill, called a Peninsula Grill, is a multi-level racked grill with fire on the bottom,
where longer cooking steaks are placed on the top and shorter cooking ones on
the bottom. It protrudes out from the steak display case and kitchen giving
guests a chance to watch their meat cook while they peruse the salad bar.
Fogo de Chão puts their gauchos through some serious training, and while Oliveira says they
have some guidelines for how long certain cuts should sit over the fire, the meat preparation
is more an art than a science. So the gauchos, who are responsible for cooking the meat as well
as serving it, operate more on sense and feel than on a set time that something needs to be cooked.
One might think slicing beef for hungry guests and cooking meat would be a tough balancing act.
"Presentation is key - 15 different cuts of meat carved tableside."
But Oliveira says the gauchos have mastered it, saying of the gauchos -
You could probably wrap bacon around a piece of rotting driftwood and it would taste delicious.
Fogo de Chão understands this, and in addition to its regular selection of fire-grilled meats
also serves a number of items wrapped in bacon which according to Fogo de Chão's website,
is hardwood smoked and honey cured. This begins with bacon-wrapped chicken breasts,
cooked high on the Peninsula grill so the bacon juices have time to saturate the meat.
Fogo de Chão also offers Medalhoes com Bacon, described on the menu simply as
steak or chicken wrapped in bacon. Depending on the night, Fogo de Chão will also wrap several of
its steaks in bacon, though Oliveira says which cut gets the bacon treatment changes regularly.
Fogo de Chão keeps a consistent lineup of steaks, spelled out easily on its
website so you can start salivating before you even make a reservation.
"Once the meats start arriving and you start tasting these different
flavors that's when the people really start to get excited."
Those include some standards you already know and love like filet
mignon and porterhouse. But also some special Brazilian steak cuts like the iconic picanha,
the circular-grained top sirloin that's the prime part of the cut,
sliced extra then at the table. You'll also find beef ancho, which is essentially a bone-in ribeye,
and fraldinha which is a heavily marbled bottom sirloin popular in southern Brazil.
But unless you're getting rodizio every week, you'll likely see at least a few
things different every time you go to Fogo de Chão, with both the salad bar and meats
getting tweaked based on the season. As Wanderson Oliveira told Mashed -
Take a look at some of the meat display cases around Fogo de Chão and you'll see
a special selection of steaks being dry-aged too.
Now, you've probably heard the term "dry-aged" thrown around a lot. Dry aging is pretty specific,
and has some serious science behind it. According to Rudimar Bonfada,
dry aging involves storing steaks in a temperature and humidity-controlled locker to dry the steaks,
yielding about 30% less meat than when you started due to evaporation
of moisture. This concentrates the flavors, making them more robust. At the same time,
enzymes begin breaking down the meat, creating a more tender cut as well.
While it might be reasonable to think that a Brazilian steakhouse would source its beef
from Brazil, Fogo de Chão's supply chain carbon footprint isn't that big. According to Bonfada,
all of Fogo de Chao's beef comes from the good old' U.S. of A., sourced from the heart
of cattle country in the great Midwest. While he wouldn't elaborate on which states specifically,
it's still comforting to know the beef comes from relatively close by, as he told Mashed -
He did not elaborate on which sustainable practices he was referring to,
but minimizing fuel and transportation costs in sourcing beef is always a good first step.
With such flavorful meat, some might assume that Fogo de Chão has a proprietary spice
blend it puts on all its steaks to make them taste so delicious. This
is not at all the case. The secret to Fogo de Chão's great flavor: Simple rock salt,
a simple-yet-effective seasoning that brings out all the wonders of what Fogo de Chão grills.
How it's applied, and how much, is also part of gaucho training,
and though relatively simple it is of utmost importance, as Rudimar Bonfada explained -
While the steaks can hold their own with just a sprinkling of sea salt, other meats need a
little more love to get them up to Fogo de Chão standards. This starts with its trademark frango,
a chicken leg served on a skewer. Before the chicken gets the full rodizio treatment,
though, it's marinated for hours in a special marinade consisting of beer, brandy, paprika,
garlic, lemon, onion, and pepper. Bonfada explained the mixture to Mashed, saying -
Steak is the main attraction at Fogo de Chão, to be sure. But guests might be well served
to check out some of the other meats the restaurant offers. Roving the dining room,
you'll also see pork chops, pork rib, pork loin, and sausages,
each grilled with the same attention to detail and meticulous care as the trademark steaks.
One can't-miss item circulating on skewers is Fogo de Chão's lamb chops and prime lamb picanha. Both
are marinated in a recipe completely different from the one the restaurant uses for chicken,
this one is made up of white wine, lemon, and epic amounts of mint. The result is a crisp,
citrusy bite that contrasts the richness of the lamb. The mint gives it an herbal finish that
makes the chops taste almost like a savory tea, a flavor you likely won't find on menus elsewhere.
Fogo de Chão offers an entire menu of specialty steaks that
are even more flavorful than the stuff the gauchos bring by. The aforementioned
dry-aged tomahawk is one of the more popular from this supplemental menu,
offering an exceptionally flavorful option for those who want something extra.
Also on the menu are a couple of American wagyu cuts — an ancho and a New York strip. For the
unfamiliar, Wagyu is a term that originally referred to any cattle originating from Japan,
and only four breeds in Japan are considered Wagyu today, considered to have superior
marbling and flavor. American ranchers began importing Wagyu cattle in the 1970s,
and today you can find both American and Japanese wagyu beef on menus. Fogo de Chão's offerings are
served sizzling on a salt block, which adds to the flavor and flair whenever one is ordered.