Edilson “Eddie” Rigo
Chef from Brazil
Oil on canvas 40” x 30”

Edilson “Eddie” Rigo came to New York to work as a “pizza man” after repeated robberies of his parents’ pizza parlors in Sao Paulo, Brazil caused them to sell out and move to the safer countryside. “Being safe is everything,” Eddie says, but he needed to work and loved big cities. After five years of making pizza in a suburban New York shop, he got a job with a coffee importer and set up several espresso bars for him in New York City and Miami. That business did not survive the 2008-09 recession. Yet one of its customers hired Eddie to set up and run an espresso bar in his building in Long Island City, where he works today as chef and manager of a popular spot noted for his good cheer and great recipes. When not there, Eddie loves to explore the streets and neighborhoods of New York City, smelling spices and sampling dishes from all the world’s cuisines.