In Salvador, the meal is not organized into starter-main-dessert: it is built around the *tabuleiro* (the street-food tray of the *baiana*), the family *almoço* based on rice, beans, and a stew with red palm oil (*dendê*), then *doces* (coconut and sugar sweets) and *refrescos* (cool drinks, sometimes fermented). This cuisine, born from the encounter between enslaved Yoruba Africa, Portugal, and tropical fruits, places *dendê* and coconut milk at the heart of everything, both savory and sweet.

Oil extracted from the African palm (*dendezeiro*), deep orange, with an earthy and warm flavor. Brought by Africans, it is the coloring and fragrant soul of Bahian cuisine. It is the signature that Gil carried all his life, from the street fries of Salvador to his more vegetarian choices, where *dendê* remains the common thread of the taste of home.