Beef and sausages on long skewers, roasted over embers with nothing but coarse salt and sliced straight onto the plate.
What makes it churrasco
Large cuts, fat on, on long skewers.
Embers, not flames — wood or charcoal.
Only coarse salt; farofa and vinagrete alongside.
Where it comes from
It began with the gaúchos, the cattle herders of the southern pampas, who roasted meat on skewers stuck into the ground beside a fire. The cooking is still that simple; the art is in the fire and the timing.
Churrascarias carried it across Brazil, and later the rodízio — waiters bringing skewer after skewer to the table — carried it abroad. The favourite cut is picanha, the rump cap, with its band of fat left on.