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Table of Contents

Table of Contents pão de queijo   NEWS

 

 

pão de queijo  

 

 

In Brazil, pão de queijo is a popular breakfast item along with coffee. Made of cassava flour, pão de queijo is sold mainly at snack bars and bakeries. The "Casa do Pao de Queijo" chain has expanded greatly in the past few years, based on their recipe that produces a distinctive, slightly sour and somewhat lopsided version. Pão de queijo can also be bought frozen at supermarkets to be baked at home, including between most popular brands Forno de Minas and Casa do Pão de Queijo. Additionally, in Brazil, cheese puff mix packages are easily found in most supermarkets. Popular brands are 'Yoki' and 'Hikari'.

 

They are distinctive not only because they are made of cassava or corn flour, but also because the inside is chewy and moist. If poorly done, they may seem uncooked or doughy. Their size may range from 2 cm to 15 cm (1 to 6 inches) in diameter, with about 5 cm (2 inches) of height

 

 

 

 

 

 

see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_bun

 

 

Frozen products available in the USA:

 

http://www.cheenies.com/

 

with production in NC, and distribution east coast

 

 

NEWS

 

 

 

Feb. 9--DURHAM, N.C. -- Raquel Siqueira did not plan to make tiny frozen cheese rolls her life's work.

She and her husband expected to return to Brazil after he completed his doctorate at Duke University. But the stay-at-home mother of three started dreaming with a friend. They missed the p 1/2o de queijo (cheese bread) from home.

 

Four years later, Siqueira, 35, sits at a desk in a Durham factory that every year produces nearly 3 million Cheenies, the slightly Americanized version of the Brazilian staple.

Siqueira is passionate about Cheenies. She breaks one of the 1-inch rolls open to show that although the outside is browned and toasty, the inside is cheesy and moist. Siqueira and her business partner tried about 20 recipes over months before they could get the cheesy dough to rise, fill the inside of the roll and still taste great. It wasn't until she called her mother in Brazil and got the family recipe that Cheenies could be perfected.

 

It's not just about little globs of cheesy dough. Siqueira wants the success of the business to be a model for would-be Latina businesswomen, and she invites classes at her daughters' elementary school to tour the Hood Street factory on the east side of downtown Durham.

 

The rise of Cheenies has been difficult. After a year of planning, preparation and perfecting, the fledgling business, then called Caseiro International, next had to figure out a way to sell Cheenies to an American market unfamiliar with the rolls. Then there was a nasty split between Siqueira and her co-founder, Ana Rosa Borges, who filed a lawsuit last week over the continued use of the old Cheenie box, which includes the original company name and a picture of Borges popping a Cheenie into her mouth.

"I lost not only my partner, I lost a friend," Siqueira said. "I guess I've learned a lot."

 

Borges' attorney declined to comment.

 

Rosana Silva, a Brazilian native who used to buy Cheenies right from the factory, heard the company was splitting up and she bought it. Last year, she renamed the business Caseiro Gourmet. "Caseiro" is a Portuguese word that means "homemade," Siqueira said.

 

Siqueira stuck around as a consultant and recently became Silva's partner.

 

"It's a small factory, but we're getting there," said Silva, 36.

 

Siqueira said the company is profitable. The company expects to reach $450,000 to $500,000 in sales for the one-year period that Caseiro Gourmet has run the operation.

 

Right now, a lot of Cheenie buyers are from Brazil, so the company is working hard on marketing to Americans. Cheenie boxes sit in grocery freezers, to be baked at home by consumers. The rolls have taken off at the specialty grocery stores that carry them. They are also well-received at the trendy Brazilian steakhouses that serve them. In the Triangle, the frozen Cheenies can be found at Whole Foods Markets in Cary, Durham and Chapel Hill.

 

"They've been selling fairly well," said Teresa Jones, the North Carolina marketing manager for Whole Foods. "The promotions, the work that they've done in our stores have developed a fairly regular customer base for the product."

 

P 1/2o de queijo is made from yucca flour. In Brazil it is served with meals, sold at coffee shops and found most everywhere, Silva said.

 

In 2000, Borges and Siqueira formed their company and went to Brazil to do research. They hired consultants and had machines made especially for Cheenie production shipped to Durham.

The rolls are tricky to make in a home kitchen. They're even tougher to mass produce, she said. Mix the dough too long and the grains of the flour will break. Too fast and it won't work, either. Testing recipes took months. At first, the Cheenies baked up with a hollow center, hardly the pride of Brazil.

 

Eventually, the two adapted Siqueira's grandmother's recipe. Cheenies bake a little firmer than Brazilian p 1/2o de queijo because Americans tend to think the authentic inside is underdone, Siqueira said. Cheenies contain imported Parmesan cheese.

 

But why "Cheenies?" Siqueira recalls a plane trip to Brazil with Borges. The suggestions at the time were along the lines of "cheese puffies" or "puffy cheese." Borges suggested Cheenies, a play on "Beanie Babies," which, like Cheenies, are small and cute, Siqueira said.

 

With a recipe, a name and a factory, the work had only just started.

 

"It wasn't as easy as we thought," Siqueira said. "We thought tons of people would line up at our front door."

 

But a bit of fortunate timing helped considerably. Because they contain no wheat, Cheenies are gluten-free, and their product hit the shelves at the same time specialty stores were beginning to cater to people with celiac disease, a digestive disorder. Whole Foods has seen incredible growth in the number of products that cater to people with the disease, Jones said. Cheenies fit perfectly.

 

"We have a lot of customers who look for gluten-free products, and that is the main appeal," she said. "It's something that's a bread type of product, a starch that's tasty and convenient and gluten-free."

 

Back at the factory, workers mix imported yucca flour with hot liquid ingredients. A machine drops the dough into uniform sizes, then the rolls are flash-frozen and packaged in one-pound boxes of Cheenies. In Siqueira's office, a North American map with pushpins showing where Cheenies are sold and distributed is tacked on one wall. On her computer monitor, Siqueira has taped the "Cheenie guy," an enlarged image of the roll with silly eyes and a big smile.

 

School children regularly tour the factory. Siqueira said the children enjoy the sample Cheenies at the end of the tour. ("Kids love them!" the package declares). Siqueira relishes the chance to talk to children, to be a role model.

 

That's partly why Forest View Elementary School keeps sending students to the factory, principal Toni Hill said.

 

"Part of our goal is to expose as many children to as many types of cultures as we possibly can," Hill said. "It stretches their thinking. They start thinking about possibilities. Some of these children would not think of themselves in a role of leadership in a business if they did not see people who look like they in those roles."

 

Siqueira is on the Atkins diet, so she isn't supposed to eat Cheenies -- two contain 17 grams of carbohydrates. But she indulges visitors and has a few anyway. She never tires of promoting the product. In her sleep, she envisions an enormous factory with huge shiny machines.

 

"I dream about all these Cheenies coming out of conveyor belts," she said.

 

CASEIRO GOURMET

--Founded: Ana Rosa Borges and Raquel Siqueira had formed Caseiro International in 2000 to make and sell Cheenies, a version of a Brazilian staple, pao de queijo or cheese bread. In May 2003, Rosana Silva bought the company from Borges and Siqueira. After the sale, Siqueira returned as a partner in the company.

--Location: 105 Hood St., on the east side of downtown Durham.

--Employees: Six.

--Business: About 20 days each month, the factory produces 600 1-pound boxes of Cheenies that each contain about 20 frozen cheese rolls, for a total of about 2.9 million Cheenies a year.

--Buying Cheenies: In the Triangle, the rolls are sold in the freezer section at Whole Foods Markets in Cary, Chapel Hill and Durham. They are served at Rio Churrascaria, a restaurant in North Raleigh.

 

THE PRODUCT

Cheenies: Pao de queijo (POWN deh KAY-zho) is served with dinner, as a snack or with coffee in Brazil. The rolls are made with yucca flour, which make them free of gluten. Cheenies include imported yucca flour and Parmesan cheese. The frozen rolls bake in about 30 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mar 10, 2006 (DJCS via Comtex) --

 

 

THE RECENT EXPLOSION of interest in Latin cuisine, from Mexican flavors on McDonald's sandwiches to mojitos, has largely bypassed Brazil. Now more Americans are getting a taste for Brazilian staples. Importers and retailers are finding an increasing market here for guarana soft drinks made from an exotic fruit; palmitos or coracoes de palma, Brazilian varieties of hearts of palm; and pao de queijo, a kind of cheesy bread puff sold in Brazil as snacks in bakeries and coffee shops.

 

Triunfo Food, an importer based in Newark, N.J., says it is selling 40% more frozen pao de queijo than last year. Whole Foods carries a pao mix in some stores in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and Publix supermarkets in Florida have ready-to-bake frozen pao de queijo. There's even a seven-month-old bakery in New York called Puff & Pao that specializes in homemade pao with gourmet cheeses.

 

Guarana, a tropical-fruit soft drink known for its stimulant properties, is now being sold at some Wal-Mart stores in Miami and Salt Lake City, at 80 Stop & Shop stores in New England and at A&P Super Food Marts in Connecticut, as well as on Brazilian food Web sites. Guarana is the active ingredient in Bawls Guarana, an energy drink made in the U.S. that's being marketed to videogame aficionados through contests and events; sales by volume in 2005 went up 34% from 2004 results, according to the company. One importer says he's bringing in 50% more canned hearts of palm from Brazil than he did last year. Overall, the value of Brazilian agricultural exports, which include commodity crops such as coffee and orange juice, rose by nearly 25% in 2004, according to the Embassy of Brazil.

 

Some of this growth is because of an influx of Brazilian immigrants looking for a taste of home. Until the 1980s, few Brazilians moved to the U.S., according to the Brazilian Embassy, but the pace has picked up. Annual immigration doubled to 350,000 from March 2002 to March 2005, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. When Brazilianshop.com, a Web site that sells foods such as acai berry juice and guarana soda, launched four years ago, about 95% of customers were expatriate Brazilians, says Chief Executive Marcelo Gomez. But now these products are crossing over. Today, about half of the site's patrons are non-Brazilian Americans, Mr. Gomez says.

 

One reason: More Americans are vacationing in Brazil -- in excess of 700,000 Americans in 2004, four times the number 10 years ago, according to Brazilian tourism officials.

 

Most observers put more emphasis on the arrival -- and proliferation -- of the Brazilian steakhouses churrascaria restaurant, where diners pay an all-you-can-eat price for various cuts of skewered meat. While there's no exact count of churrascarias in the U.S., Zagat Surveys lists 67 Brazilian restaurants in its top-10 largest market guides, up from 37 three years ago. Fogo de Chao, which launched its first churrascaria in Dallas in 1997, now has six units throughout the country, while Texas de Brazil has opened eight places since 1998. These restaurants "are very important in terms of positioning our products" to American diners, says Leonardo Burgos, sales director at Brex America, a Miami Brazilian-food importer. Most churrascarias serve hearts of palm in the salad bar, pao de queijo in the bread basket and guarana soft drinks.

 

cachaca from Brazil, the Brazilian rum used in the popular caipirinha cocktails, is also coming into the U.S. in ever-greater amounts; imports went up by 20% in 2005. The spirit has even gotten its first high-end brand for the U.S. market, Leblon, which sells for $29.99 for 750 milliliters, about twice as much as other brands. Steven Luttman, a former marketing executive in LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton's wine and spirits division who launched Leblon in September, says he believes the popularity of Brazilian music, models and sandals indicates a taste for all things Brazilian. In the past three months, he says he has sold 1,500 cases and opened 850 accounts. "Cachaca is the next tequila," he says.

 

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 18 (Reuters) - After centuries of absorbing gastronomic influences coming from the old world, Brazil is now giving Europe some feed back via American-style fast food and franchise chains.  The latest Brazilian invasion on the European turf, after fixed-price barbecue restaurants or the exotic caipirinha cocktail, is its famed cheese bread, or oven-baked bread balls made of a mix of manioc flour with soft local cheese.

 

The "Casa de Pao de Queijo", the main franchise selling the cheese bread - "pao de queijo" in Portuguese - across Brazil, will start conquering Europe from the Iberian Peninsula, from where the Portuguese set sail for Brazil five centuries ago.  "Our plant in Barcelona is completely ready and two outlets, one in Madrid and the other one in Lisbon will open very soon," said Regina Thompson, expansion director at the company, which sells $35 million worth of cheese bread and other products via its small fast food-type shops.  "They are the pilot projects and further expansion is planned if those take off. But our market research and tests indicate that the cheese bread will be very popular there."  Company officials did not say how much they invested in the plant. Thompson said the projects were being developed jointly with a Spanish firm and a Portuguese company, who will later take up the franchises under the Brazilian brand name.

 

"There are bakeries in Portugal who make cheese bread, but they are individual 'home-made' cases. We are taking a franchise there, thinking on a big scale," Thompson said. "Franchising is a good way to expand there as we don't have to sell the product."

 

Casa de Pao de Queijo was founded in 1967 in the central state of Minas Gerais, known in Brazil for its food as well as fiery drink cachaca - the main ingredient of the caipirinha cocktail, which is a mix of crushed lime, sugar and a generous dose of the hard liquor.  The network now counts 300 outlets, working under the company sign - a granny with a tray of fresh bread in her hands.

Company officials say the cheese has to be the Minas Gerais' white cheese, or "it won't be the real thing". Manioc flour also has to be exported to wherever the bread is made.

 

A cheese bread ball costs in Brazil about 40 U.S. cents and is an affordable snack for most people. It has optional fillings of different melted cheeses or olive paste and is normally accompanied by juices, coffee or soft drinks. In Europe, however, the price should at least double due to import and different production costs.

 

 

 

Carmem Queiroz will be the first franchised of Casa do Pao de Queijo (fast food) overseas. The chain (which specializes in cheese rolls) currently holds five stores in Portugal, but the franchise unit will be opened by Queiroz over the next weeks. Until the end of 2003, the aim is to reach nine units in Portugal plus two in Spain. Casa do Pao de Queijo has invested R$10mil to open a factory in Barcelona (Spain) with a capacity of 150 m tons of cheese rolls per month. Currently only 10 m tons are consumed per month. In Brazil, Casa do Pao de Queijo plans to open 200 selling points this year. The chain ended 2002 with 700 stores, which turned over R$160mil. The forecast is to reach R$160mil this years. Since 2000, Banco Patria holds 70% stake of Casa do Pao de Queijo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If winter's approach already has you dreaming of warmer climes, there is a quick fix that may help. Visit Padaminas Brazilian Bakery in Mount Vernon and you will feel like you have landed in Sao Paulo.  There may not be anyone there who speaks English -- most of the staff doesn't -- and all signs will be in Portuguese. But that's the point. Padaminas was opened in 2001, mainly for the 7,000 Brazilians who reside in Mount Vernon (population about 75,000) and are nostalgic for the tastes of home. But the rest of us are welcome too.

 

You would have to go to Newark, N.J., or perhaps Danbury, Conn., where there are also large Brazilian populations, to find the kind of bread available at Padaminas, which is baked on the premises three times a day. Pedro Coelho, the owner, says he sells 2,000 of his Frenchrolls, (30 cents each) daily. They aresimilar to traditional French or Italian rolls but softer. The braided bread ($4.25) looks and tastes a bit like challah but is sweeter. Then there are various cheese breads and delicious fried puffpastry ''pastels'' ($1.30), filled with beef, ham and cheese, or hearts of palm.  Guava paste cookies, biscoito (biscuits) and ''monkey candy'' (a Brazilian hard candy with a monkey on the wrapper) help satisfy the Brazilian sweet tooth. The flan (richer than the Spanish version) and cheesecake are worth a try. Guarana soda, made from an Amazonian fruit, and mango, passion fruit or grape smoothies, are available.  Padaminas is also a gathering place. Young men hang out trading stories and job tips. Older folks have a snack while watching Portuguese-language television shows. There's even a Western Union desk in the bakery for sending money back to Brazil. ''It's a connection to home,'' says Mr. Coelho.

Padaminas Brazilian Bakery, 66 West Lincoln Ave., Mount Vernon;

 

 

 

 

DCI

Small producers of cheese bread (typical Brazilian product) of the state of Minas Gerais have doubled the production in 2002. The information comes from the Brazilian Association of Cheese Bread Producers (ABPQ), entity that gathers 16 fabricants that produce 500 tonnes per month. This figure does not include the sector's leader, Forno de Minas, which is not affiliated to the Association

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

São Paulo, 07/12/2005 - General Mills Brasil, a subsidiary of the fifth largest foods corporation in the world, is expanding its exportation of "Forno de Minas" brand cheese bread. In June, the Brazilian brand began to be sold in Gallerie Lafayette, in Paris, in an event linked with the Year of Brazil in France promotions.

"The Lafayette gallery represents more than department stores. It is a tourism point, a fashionable place that everyone wants to know and where premium products are sold," said General Mills international trade manager Junia Caetano Junqueira. In June, a tonne of cheese bread was sold in the gallery and in French restaurants. "We had a wonderful response. People sought out our product and we have already received invitations to other events," commented the executive. "We intend in the coming months to be at 50 points-of-sale in that country," she said.

Today, between retail chains and restaurants, Forno de Minas cheese bread is sold at 9,000 points-of-sale just in Brazilian territory. "Italy is the oldest client, with eight years of exports, but focusing on food service (restaurants and luncheonettes). Now we want to grow through distribution in the retail market." Toward that end, she detailed, "Our principal marketing tool is product tasting. After experimenting, the consumer falls in love with the taste," said Junqueira. In the United States, the biggest export market, the product has been selling since 1999.

Exports of the product represent 5% of the revenues of General Mills Brasil, with 3.5% related to the United States and 1.5% from other countries, primarily Italy and Argentina. The aim is to have exports reach 20% of company business within five years. Junqueira said that the export performance of Forno de Minas this year already represents a 50% increase over last year.

To attain the new goals, the company still plans to expand its export portfolio under the Forno de Minas brand, currently limited to cheese bread. "We plan to add to the line-up the layered pastries and potato bread," said the executive. The Forno de Minas bakery is at Contagem (Minas Gerais state), and according to her the company has no intention of producing the foods in international territory. "We just want more points-of-sale," she said.

 

 

 

 

Rio de Janeiro, 06/26/2003 - Brazilians who live in the United States already find familiar products, like cheese bread and "doce de leite" at 95 points of sale in local retail outlets. The products are imported, in an average 35 shippping containers a month, by International Specialty Imports (ISI).

The objective of the company is to work with 500 supermarkets and other retailers within two years. Its optimism is based on 2.2 million Brazilians who live in the United States and the acceptance of the products as well by the Americans themselves.

 

 

 

 

SAO PAULO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Pillsbury dough boy has poked his finger into Brazilian cheese bread with Pillsbury's takeover of the country's leading brand of the popular snack, Forno de Minas.

The Pillsbury Co., a subsidiary of British food and drinks group Diageo Plc , said on Wednesday it will acquire the Forno cheese bread factory from brand owner Brisco SA and the nationwide sales and distribution network.

Forno de Minas will retain a cheese factory - the biggest supplier to the bread factory bought by Pillsbury - and a frozen manioc plant.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Pillsbury said in a statement.

Forno de Minas cheese bread dough comes frozen, fresh or in a mix and is baked, like Pillsbury biscuits, in an oven.

"Pao de queijo", cheese bread in Portuguese, is a popular breakfast and snack food, often accompanied by a cup of strong Brazilian coffee.

Pillsbury has operated a subsidiary in Brazil since 1996 and currently sells Haagen-Dazs ice cream and Frescarini pasta in Latin America's largest economy.

 

 

 

 

01/08/98 - Belo Horizonte - The latest episode of the new market of cheese bread - a typical Brazilian cheese bun - promises to heat up the dispute in 1998, between the sector's two large companies, Forno de Minas and Sao Geraldo, both located in the state of Minas Gerais. By selling 51% of its capital to the Lorenz foodstuffs company, located in Blumenau, in the state of Santa Catarina, the second placed Sao Geraldo wants to begin its internationalization and increase its capital for new expansion in the domestic market.

'We are preparing to take over leadership and face globalization,' said the president of the company, Andre Luiz de Avila Martins. According to him, the sale of his company's control to Lorenz will be concluded on March 31 with a share purchase, through the simple capital increase of Sao Geraldo. The values of the agreement are expected to be announced today by Martins and by the director of market relations of Lorenz, Arthur Yuwao Uenoyama. (Silvio Ribas, Andrea Leonora collaborated). 

 

 

 

 

A new mix for preparing cheese bread has recently been launched in Brazil, Spain, Italy, Japan, Venezuela, Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The new Pao de Queijo (cheese bread) is presented in laminate bags and is offered in a normal and in a Light variety. According to package text, the light variety features 70 percent less fat and 20 percent less calories than the normal mix.  The normal variety is presented in a 250g bag while the Light variety is offered in a 200g bag. Each mix is said to be easy to prepare. The mix is marketed under the Yoki brand name and is manufactured in Brazil by Yoki Alimentos S.A. For sample retrieval information, please call: Marketing Intelligence Service, Ltd., (585) 374-6326.