Traditional Brazilian Foods wins NZ Food Award 2014 and Fine Food Finalist Award 2014 with only 11 months of operation
Durello – Traditional Brazilian Foods has won the highest food award, NZ Food Award Convenience Category - last
Thursday. The event was held at the prestigious Langham Hotel. According to Ray McVinnie and Nici Wickes the Chicken
Delights are absolutely delicious. Jessie Mulligan mentioned on National Radio last Friday, that the Brazilian savouries
were his favourites. Besides winning the NZ Food Award with the Chicken Delight, the Brazilian Cheese Bread won the Fine
Food Finalist Award in June 2014.
The business was founded in November 2013 and the production started in a small commercial kitchen in the city of
Auckland where every single cheese bread was rolled by hand. After 6 weeks, Marcelo Menoita & Barbara Scholten, the founders of Durello, had to re structure as the orders kept on coming in and they weren’t able to
keep up rolling the Cheese Bread by hand.
In April 2014, the company moved to larger premises in Albany and special machinery was imported from Brazil to produce
the Cheese Bread and the Chicken Delights or the Coxinhas. Today Traditional Brazilian Food produces around 35.000
savouries a month after only 11 months of operation.
Marcelo and Barbara moved to NZ from Brazil in 2008 with literally 10 suitcases and 4 children. The family has a “food”
tradition which started with Marcelo’s mum, Neide Durello, many years ago.
Neide Durello was born and raised in the countryside of Brazil, of Italian origins. She was one of 9 children, which
made her soon realise that love and affection combined with good food were essential ingredients for shared moments of
happiness within the family. At the early age of 14, the young Neide was chosen by her mother to help in the kitchen,
and that was where it all started. She was instantly hooked by the pleasure of preparing very simple food with
extraordinary flavours.
More than 50 years later, Neide says she is always learning new ways, but we are constantly amazed to see how her
homemade recipes are able to captivate so many different food lovers, in different parts of the world. Maybe because, as
Neide says: “her recipes start in her heart!”
Today, her second and third generations bring these delicacies to New Zealand, with the same care and dedication the
family has prepared great recipes for all these years.
For more information please visit www.durello.co.nz and the Facebook page “Durello – Traditional Brazilian Foods.
ENDS