Carioca gastronomy owes to Portugal most of its basic European recipes for meat and seafood dishes, salads, soups, desserts, and dry sweets - the Portuguese strongly promoted the consumption of wheat and rice with beef, lamb, pork, fish, soups, fruits, and vegetables.

Over the course of the city's 450 years of existence, Rio's residents have developed a wonderful culinary flare, incorporating influences, tastes and textures from Africa and Europe, such as feijoada, cod and many delicious dishes from Northeastearn Brazil, adapting them to Indigenous cooking and ingredients such as manioc and coconut. In more recent years, a diverse range of international culinary cultures have taken root, such as Japanese sushi, Mexican empanadas and the French crêpe.