A wide open smile, turned high-end luxury

Miracles happen. But, contrary to popular belief, the best and most deep miracles do not happen overnight, but slowly, very slowly. (excerpt from "To Mary of Grace" by Paulo Mendes Campos)

The loving peas farmer turned honorable restaurateur. It looks like newspaper headline. This is what happened, but not in a blink of an eye! It was what Juscelino Pereira wanted at 16 years old. No longer with the farming, but with his acclaimed restaurants in Sao Paulo, success of public and critics. For him, it seems the sky's the limit.

No college, or wealthy parents. The path for the rich harvest of this man, who studied up to the eighth grade, begins with the spread smile and continues with a surefire recipe. A mixture of affection, charisma and stubbornness.

His life has been told in a book, illustrated by images captured in Joanópolis, hometown; on the suburbs of São Paulo, the starting point; in northern Italy, the wine regions of Barolo and Barbaresco, where Juscelino was to choose the wines of his first restaurant. They show the day to day operation, customers and employees at work in Piselli, when his dream started to become reality. The images are organic such as the peas which he cultivated.

Let's do it by steps.

The script of this man’s life went through the wet dirt, down ravines, curves, climbed the hills to find its proper place. A story that is based on perseverance and love for good food.

Unsuccessful agriculture, he decided to try his luck in the big city. The first stop was at a diner on the suburbs of Sao Paulo. Handyman turned waiter. He wanted more. The compass pointed his will to Jardins, a select neighborhood in Sao Paulo, where people said it was "another world". It was.

Juscelino learned fast to taste and identify wines and it’s labels. When he arrived at Fasano, considered the mecca of São Paulo’s gastronomy, he did not care to go down a few steps and earn three times less. In the group he spent 12 years as Maitre, sommelier and manager.

He still wanted more. With a gastronomic repertoire not only from the restaurants that he worked, but also from the trips he made as a sommelier, on July 31, 2004, he opened the Piselli - pea in Italian. On that day, he turned 35 years old. The success of the restaurant opened many doors and he started to invest in other venues: the Zena Caffé, the Maremonti Group and La Cocotte. Recently opened Piselli Sud in Shopping Iguatemi, the center of the city for luxury consumption.

The teachings of his grandfather, the farmer Vicente Tavico, who was very close to him, are the basis for everything the businessman performs. He used to say that, at age 35, every man should have done something important in life. Another grandfather's adage: "Never lose your name in the business." Juscelino, who is trained as a sommelier by the Brazilian Association of Sommeliers (ABS); President of the Confraternity of Restauranteurs of São Paulo and director of the Restaurant Association of São Paulo (ANR) strictly follows his history.