Brazilian Helena Rizzo, named the best female chef in Latin America and the world, recently explained how Spanish food changed her life.

In 2013, Rizzo was named The Veuve Clicquot Latin America's Best Female Chef 2013 on the list sponsored by S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna thanks for her "powerhouse cooking," and Mani, her restaurant in Sao Paulo, was named as No. 46 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants List, according to Eater. Recently, she was also named The Veuve Clicquot World's Best Female Chef 2014.

In Mani, Rizzo still maintains her same routine despite her impressive new titles, EFE reports.

"This year is the first time that I've taken a vacation in eight years," Rizzo told EFE.

The chef worked in Spain from 2002 until 2005. During her time there, she learned to speak Spanish. It was in Spain that she got a career-changing job in El Celler de Can Roca, a three-star restaurant in Girona.

Famous chef Joan Roca noticed Rizzo's tasty talent while she worked in El Celler de Can Roca. He eventually hired her to work for him in Moo, a restaurant in Barcelona, Spain.

While working in Moo, Rizzo said she fell in love with and was inspired by Spanish food, "although we may have our own path at Mani."

Mani features Brazilian ingredients with Spanish cooking influences.

"I use stir-frying and saute [techniques], sweet pepper, which I really love, olive oil and my seafood cooking [takes less time than is normal in Brazil]," Rizzo said. "How to define it? I don't want to ... the ingredients are the spark."

Now that she has her own restaurant, Rizzo has a routine she "enjoys." The responses to her food that she has cherished the most include "an elderly man crying with emotion over what he ate" and "a little boy telling me that it's his favorite restaurant," she said.

Rizzo was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and worked as model to pay for culinary school.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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