In Canada for almost 10 years, Leonardo Barbosa, 44, from Pernambuco, has always made Brazilian food at home, a couple of immigrants.
He lives in Calgary, in the western province of Alberta. However, he found almost all the ingredients of Brazilian cuisine that he needed, except for the traditional dry meat, or beef jerky.
According to him, the product could not be purchased anywhere in North America.
Leonardo and his wife, Adriana Barbosa, 42, moved to Canada in search of a better quality of life. He, an agronomist, was a merchant in Recife, and Adriana worked as a graphic designer.
Language
Certainly when they arrived in the country, Adriana already mastered English and went to work with her brother, who was already established in the country. Leonardo didn't speak a word of the language and went to work bagging potatoes.
Little by little he learned the language and managed to enter the market. Until, in 2016, a diagnosis changed the course of the couple's life. Adriana was 5 months pregnant when she learned that the baby had Total Atrioventricular Septum, or DSAVT. However, the disease is characterized by a malformation that compromises communication between the atria of the heart. Half of babies with the disease have Down syndrome.
After the first diagnosis, tests confirmed that the couple's son would be born with Down syndrome. “It was a huge blow to process that with so many expectations,” said Adriana.
From that day onwards, Leonardo began to accompany his wife to all medical appointments — and there were many. Absence from work caused him to be fired. When Oliver was born, Leonardo stayed at home to take care of his son while his wife worked.
And it was just before the arrival of another cold season in Canada, while lying in a hammock, that Leonardo had the idea of risking a recipe that would change the history of the family. He salted and hung two pieces of meat in the kitchen of their apartment in Calgary.
“When he said he was going to do it here, I said, 'For God's sake, the house will smell.' I only thought about the practical part”, said Adriana. Leonardo insisted with his wife. He said he missed her a lot, that he was going to do it and that it was going to work out. So when the meat was done, they invited a couple of friends over for dinner. Leonardo began to think that perhaps he was facing a business opportunity.
northeastern manioc
“When they came in, she [a friend] already smelled it and she said: 'I know that smell'. Although I put boiled cassava on the table and, when I brought the meat with onions, she didn't even wait for me to put it on the table, she was already putting the fork and taking it out of the pot. Then she put it in her mouth, closed her eyes, then smiled. So she said, 'Where did you get it?' I said I had done it and she said: 'I want a kilo'.”
With the meat's flavor approved, Leonardo decided it was worth a try. It took 13 months of scientific research and development before starting the production of jerky in Canada. Dry meat, the way it is prepared in Brazil, cannot be exported to North America because it does not comply with the legislation of the countries.
Although the research process involved testing, analysis, everything already being documented and backed by the Canadian federal food inspection agency, the CFIA. At the time, he says, as there was nothing similar to jerky, the product was analyzed under the strictest rules of Canadian legislation.
“They used the strictest criteria they had in the meat production scale, because if we met all the strictest requirements, we would be safe from a technical/scientific point of view,” said Leonardo.
In the last phase of the tests, the flavor of the meat was still not as Leonardo wanted. On the way home, it was a song by Zé Ramalho that gave Leonardo the strength not to get discouraged.
fix errors
“I got into my truck disappointed, coming back from the factory, and then Zé Ramalho started singing to me: 'now I'll get a truck/on the canvas I'm going to knockout again.' Then I said: 'Gee, but I'm knocked out, but every fight in which the person is knocked out, there's always another fight and the person fights again to try to get revenge.' So I said, 'We got knocked out, but we can overcome each other'.”
Leonardo went back to research, corrected the mistake and managed to make the jerky taste the same as the one he ate as a child in Brazil.
“The whole problem with the product is to develop the flavor. You're not just going to put salt on a piece of meat and you're going to make jerky. The person eats dried meat is not because they want to eat dehydrated meat. So she wants to eat the flavor that is ingrained in her DNA. She grew up eating jerky. However, a piece of meat that tastes like the meat that her grandmother used to make, that her mother used to make,” he said.
Lead Foods
However, on July 11, 2018, with the company already registered under the name of Lead Foods, Leonardo sold the first box of jerky, with the Canadian federal inspection seal. “The person who bought it put it on social media. That night I received almost 100 emails from various places in Canada.”
However, days later, the jerky became available for purchase online. Gradually, physical stores such as supermarkets and markets that sell Latin products began to sell dried meat and today there are 32 points of sale in the country. With his presence on the Canadian market, Leonardo set out on an even bolder conquest: entering the American market.
Therefore, the company already has an online platform ready to ship all over the country, and Leonardo Casal also has a list of physical stores interested in reselling the jerky.
So that he says that in Canada he has already received many emotional messages from Brazilians who have tried his jerky and that now it is time to take the product with a Northeastern flavor to more Brazilians.
Sons
As such, the company, which employs around 12 employees, allows Leonardo time to dedicate himself to his son, Oliver, 3. The boy changed the couple's story, and Leonardo says he is like a light.
“He is a very happy child today. He exudes joy, he is contagious. Nobody gets serious with him.”
When he remembers the beginning of his journey in the country, Leonardo still gets emotional. “I came here without English. Today I am registered with the provincial agronomist's institute and have telephone conversations with inspection personnel from the Canadian government, US government. I deal with high-ranking people I never imagined in my life. For an immigrant, who came here without speaking English, without knowing what he was going to do with his life, it's a lot.”
