Samuel Brito has a Bachelor's degree in Gastronomy from the Federal University of Ceará (Brazil) and a Master's degree in Gastronomic Sciences from the New University of Lisbon (Portugal). He is a professional cook with more than 10 years of experience, and is currently a researcher and scholarship student at the PhD Program in Sustainability Sciences at the Institute of Social Sciences, both at the University of Lisbon. His professional and academic careers have always followed in parallel. In Brazil he was a licensed researcher for the BFN (Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition) project and worked as a Chef in the “Projeto Pitadas”, for the “Grupo Pão de Açúcar”. In Portugal, parallel to his master's studies, he worked with the starred restaurant chain "Grupo Avillez" and also headed a social kitchen, the “Cozinha Popular da Mouraria”, both in Lisbon. Since the beginning of his professional and academic career, he has been working as a consultant, trainer, researcher and cook, aiming to expand his theoretical and practical knowledge in the kitchen and explore gastronomy as a new field of research and science.
PhD Candidate: Sustainability Science
Institute of Social Sciences (ICS), University of Lisbon (UL)
Samuel’s current PhD research project aims to conduct a comparative ethnographic study between social projects that use gastronomy as a tool for social transformation in institutions that are located in Portugal, Italy, France and Brazil. The methods of data collection to be employed will focus on how the activities of each projects are related to the four axes of sustainability: economy, society, environment and governance. The expected outcome of this research is the construction of a manual with guidelines, activities, and data that can be used for future social projects and social entrepreneurs.
Keywords: gastronomy, wellbeing, social projects, ethnography, food