the prestigious World's 50 Best Restaurants rankingssponsored by San Pellegrino and voted on by more than 800 industry insidersat number 50 in 2006, it has since moved up 46 spots, now trailing only Rene Redzepi's Noma and two restaurants in Spain. That forward momentum is largely owed to Atala's treating the most biodiverse region in the world as his pantry.The result is a singular cuisine, one that speaks to both indigenous ways and modern techniques. Dishes at D.O.M. have a way of feeling both out of time and of the moment: contemporary high-end dining with exploitation-free and sustainable Amazonian tribal roots. There are insects on the menu at D.O.M., burnished like jewels. A vibrant yellow sauce called tucupi must be boiled for 20 minutes to eliminate its lingering natural toxicity. One dish features spicy-tart flowers served over ice."I feel responsible for helping to show what Brazilian ingredients can do," says Atala. And the way he does it is eye-opening, maybe the last, best gastronomic shock on the planet. "I had never experienced so many of the flavors and ingredients that Alex plays with," says Daniel Humm of New York's esteemed Eleven Madison Park. "It makes for a cuisine unlike anything I've ever seen in my life." Momofuku kingpin David Chang recalls a recent dish of Atala's involving a coconut apple and seaweed. A coconut apple is the spongy mass that grows inside a germinated coconut, and it's not typically consumed; nevertheless, Atala slices it and pairs it with seaweed, giving the dish the flavor, he says, of a beach after a stormwhich is exactly what it tastes like. "It was the best first course I've had in years," says Chang. "In a nutshell, it explains the emotion behind Alex's cooking. It's something nobody ever appreciated that he's made brilliant."WHEN ATALA FIRST bought the building that now houses D.O.M., in 1999, people asked if he had lost his mind. The space, a failed Japanese restaurant with 20-foot ceilings, sat on a poorly lit, dead-end side street. Foot traffic was minimal, and the homeless population was high. Even more audacious than his location was his desire to begin developing a haute cuisine based on Brazilian ingredients that had been previously classified as less sophisticated, less important and less interestingif they were known at allthan the foods from Italy and France that had dominated diners' interests.More in WSJ. Magazine's March IssueThe Arnault LegacyThe House That Gucci BuiltThe Crown Prince of the Art WorldWhat Narciso Rodriguez KnowsMeet the Klosses"Until 1990, you could not really import food into Brazil," says Atala. But then import taxes were slashed dramatically. Free trade was introduced under President Fernando Collor de Mello, the first democratically elected head of state after three decades of military rule. Hyperinflation, often marked by four-digit increases, remained a core issue until the finance minister and future president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, introduced The Real Plan in 1994, establishing the real as a stable currency after the prior seven currencies had failed. "The '90s were booming, all about people going crazy for these foreign ingredients," says Atala. "Brazil