Brazil gets two 3‑star chefs

Brazil now has its first three-star Michelin restaurants, with Evvai and Tuju in São Paulo reaching the guide’s top rating in the 2026 edition. (michelin.com) Michelin announced the awards on April 13 at the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro, where it launched the 2026 Rio de Janeiro & São Paulo guide. The two restaurants are the first anywhere in Latin America to receive three stars from the guide. (guide.michelin.com) Evvai is led by chef Luiz Filipe Souza, whose Oriundi tasting menu blends Brazilian and Italian influences. Tuju is led by chef Ivan Ralston, whose restaurant Michelin described as a “360-degree” dining journey built around Brazilian ingredients and technique. (guide.michelin.com) Michelin’s stars are its core restaurant ranking: one star marks a very good restaurant, two stars mark cooking worth a detour, and three stars mark cooking worth a special journey. Michelin said its inspectors judge restaurants on five criteria, including product quality, technique, personality, value, and consistency across visits. (cnnbrasil.com.br) The result ends an 11-year wait since Michelin entered Brazil in 2015 with guides focused on Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Until now, no restaurant in Brazil or elsewhere in Latin America had crossed from two stars to three. (elle.com.br) The rest of the top tier stayed stable below them: D.O.M. in São Paulo, Lasai in Rio de Janeiro, and Oro in Rio de Janeiro kept two stars in the 2026 guide. Michelin said the full selection still counts 149 establishments, with 12 new entries this year. (michelin.com) The ceremony also added one new one-star restaurant, Madame Olympe in Rio de Janeiro, which opened in August 2025 in Leblon. ELLE Brasil reported that Huto in São Paulo and Ristorante Hotel Cipriani in Rio dropped off the starred list this year. (elle.com.br) Ivan Ralston said onstage that the achievement should not be reduced to one person, adding that “the chef is only as good as the team,” according to CNN Brasil. Luiz Filipe Souza said the award honored everyone who had passed through Evvai and the school the restaurant had built. (cnnbrasil.com.br) Michelin’s own summary of the 2026 guide said inspectors saw a dining scene still anchored in Brazilian flavors and local ingredients even as Italian and Japanese cooking continued to expand in both cities. With Evvai and Tuju now at three stars, São Paulo has become Michelin’s first three-star city in Latin America. (michelin.com)