This Réveillon, Be on the Balcony at Midnight — Not in the Kitchen

"Beatriz hosts Réveillon every year in her apartment overlooking Copacabana — the best fireworks seat in Brazil, and for ten years running she watched them through the kitchen doorway while finishing the bacalhau for 14 guests. Last year, her daughters booked her a myChef chef as an early Christmas present."

The chef served the ceia at 22:00, had the sweet table set by 23:30, and at midnight Beatriz was on her own balcony, glass in hand, watching the sky over the beach with everyone she loves. She says it was the first virada she actually saw in a decade.

"Twelve friends split a summer house in Juquehy for the New Year week. The plan was 'everyone cooks together' — which, as veterans know, means two people cook while ten swim. For the 31st itself, they pooled the restaurant money they were saving and hired a chef through myChef."

The chef grilled a whole fish over coals, served moqueca from the clay pot, and put grapes and lentils on the table for the traditionalists. Split twelve ways, it cost less per person than any Réveillon party ticket on that coast — and nobody spent the virada at the sink.

"Otávio and Marina invited both families — 22 people, two sets of traditions — to their rooftop in São Paulo. Her family insists on bacalhau and lentils; his demands tender and pomegranate seeds in everyone's wallet. Previous attempts at merging the two ceias had ended in gentle in-law warfare."

The chef built one menu honoring both tables: bacalhau ao forno and glazed tender side by side, lentil rice for all, pomegranate seeds distributed at 23:50 with ceremony. Both mothers claimed the menu was 'basically ours' — which Otávio counted as the first diplomatic victory of the new year.