Hello! My name is Keyla Nogueira, but you can call me Keyla!

I am a the Head Chef and a Co-Owner of Casa Brasil in Highland Park. I also like to call myself a“chefpreneur” (chef + entrepreneur), because “I work just as hard on the business as the food, and there is not one without the other”.

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So, a little bit about me…

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I was born and raised in Juquitiba, São Paulo, Brasil (yes, I don’t use the z, but that’s another story). I learned how to cook at a very young age, during my teen years I became more familiar with cooking especially by helping my family prepare our daily meals.

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I moved to the US in 2006 and I had to learn how to cook again, this time learning how to make the food I grew up eating but in a foreign land. It was not an easy task, since many ingredients used in Brazilian cooking were missing or tasted different than what I was used to, so I had to learn how to adapt my recipes and it worked. I was happy to eat and make some delicious meals thousands of miles away.

Fast forward to 2014 I started sharing the flavors of my home country’s cuisine with Pittsburgh through catering, supper club dinners, pop-up events etc. As a result of my culinary explorations with a focus on home style traditional cooking based on family recipes.

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I’m proud to say that I bring to the table dishes heavily influenced by the three main cultures in Brasil: Afro and Native Brazilian and also Portuguese serving the best of comfort food that represent Brazilian culture and cuisine.