Italian Immigrants Culinary in Brazil: A Legacy without Heights?

The food and culinary heritage left by the families of Italian immigrants who came to Brazil was built by association between knowledge and discoveries. To safeguard this intangible heritage, whose tourist potential is undeniable, the aim of this study is understand the transmission of culinary and food heritage among generations of Italian s immigrant descendants, in current times, in the Fourth Italian Immigration Colony of Rio Grande do Sul. A qualitative methodological approach was used to this, based on semi-structured interviews with twelve (12) families of descendants from Italian s immigrants, where three generations were interviewed, from 1920 onwards. In addition, the analysis of documents in manuscripts and cookbooks of these families was carried out. Based in the presented reports, content analysis was organized into three different temporal moments: the new world , the world in transformation and the current world . As a result, it was observed that the families of descendants from Italian s immigrants seek to preserve the culinary practices of their ancestors. However, there were changes, not just in the prepare, but also in the replacement or insertion of new ingredients in the plates, especially spices. However, the families economic and social development, new technologies access, work world s changes, among other factors, have encouraged, especially the third generation, to leave some of this knowledge and practices.