According to historical facts, the origin of roasted meat goes back to the caveman era when primitive man, by mastering the techniques of making fire, realised that hunted food was tastier and lasted longer when roasted.

As for barbecue, as we know it in Brazil, comes from the Pampa region of South America, which gathers Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay and Argentina.

The discovery of barbecue is attributed to the indigenous who inhabited the coast of the three Americas. They roasted the meat in the open air, on a fire over stones with the aid of a green wooden grill, but it was in the great pampa region that the barbecue found its ideal environment. In the 17th century, it was a cattle transport region, within the Sete Povos das Missões, a community created by the Jesuits in the west of Rio Grande do Sul, to gather indigenous people – especially Guaranis – in the catechizing mission. Destroyed in 1768, the community left as a testimony, in addition to the ruins, an ideal example of an ideal society for men and its profound influence on colonization. The herds raised there, without an owner after the wars for territories, conquered the fields and there multiplied at the whim of nature. It was too showy wealth not to be taken advantage of in that Brazil – a colony that grew after gold. Therefore, the preachers began to descend from Laguna and São Paulo to apprehend them. They were the drovers, whose basic meal during the brief camping stops consisted of a piece of fresh meat, roasted over the heat of the embers on the ground and seasoned with a little ash.

The drovers, winterers and their peons had their main diet on roasted cattle, now salty. They had copied from the Indians the custom of putting meat blankets under the harness, on the horse’s back, while riding. At the stopping point, properly salted by the animal’s sweat, the meat was ready to go to the fire.

As can be seen, barbecue became a common thread, not only in Rio Grande, but also throughout Latin America, before the discovery and it continued in this role during the third cycle of fixation to the land, the so-called “farmer civilization”. Now it was already a very large organized farm, in which the people left for distant cattle work, which lasted weeks, months and whose menu was barbecue, nutritious and easy to make with meat by hand. It was at that moment that it took the form of a typical gaucho barbecue as we know it, with open fire and meat skewers stuck in the surrounding land.

The traditional barbecue, from the pampa, is made with large pieces of meat and over a wood fire on the ground. The wooden skewers are nailed into the ground, diagonally and close to the fire. From there, flakes of meat are cut from the most roasted external parts, while the most internal parts are roasted. The recipe couldn’t be simpler: meat with some fat – usually ribs -, covered in salt and taken to a long fire, roasting first on one side and then on the other.

In Rio Grande do Sul, barbecue is still part of the culture of the gaucho, and is also always present in the life of the countryside gaucho. Throughout Brazil, there are thousands of steakhouses, which satisfy everyone with the quality and wide range of meats, salads, side dishes and desserts.

Today there are Brazilian steakhouses spread around the world, which are very successful in countries such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, England, Macau, Singapore and Thailand. It’s the brazilian culture spreading around the world.