00:02In Macau there's this very interesting thing.
00:06In the same day you can be in a very humble Chinese or Portuguese place
00:10and then by the end of the day you can be in a three Michelin star
00:14at the top of a five-star hotel.
00:16So it's really interesting to have these both sides.
00:23I'm Cristiano Tavares.
00:24I come from Vila do Conde in northern Portugal.
00:28I arrived in Macau in 2012 and since then I've been working as a chef.
00:34I'm married with Cam since 2017 and we have a keep together.
00:39I'm the owner of Macalhau and Gelados de Portugal
00:43and I'm the executive chef in Vic's restaurant and Rock's hotel.
00:49After having the first experience of working in a Michelin recommended
00:54Portuguese restaurant here in Macau,
00:56I went to try five-star hotels.
00:59But then I always wanted to open my own thing.
01:02So Macalhau was that concept that I wanted to try here in Macau.
01:06Macalhau is a project really important to me
01:09because it's like a homage to my grandpa.
01:13He was actually a codfish fisherman back in the 70s.
01:21Macau got recognized in 2017 by UNESCO as a creative city of gastronomy.
01:27So I think it's the right place if you want to open a restaurant,
01:31takeaway shop, there's still a lot of demand for it.
01:35Opening Macalhau was quite easy even though I didn't have any previous experience as an entrepreneur.
01:41But I found that it was really easy and going to government departments, they are really helpful.
01:49And in the beginning it went very well.
01:52We had a lot of attention from local people.
01:56I always try to go get the freshest products.
01:59Here for Macalhau, obviously bacalhau has to come from Portugal,
02:03but all the fresh vegetables, all the other fresh products that we sell here,
02:07I tend to go to the local market.
02:09I always go to the markets and all these years I made a lot of friends there,
02:13and they really welcomed me there.
02:19After Macalhau, I found this Portuguese ice cream brand in Portugal
02:24and with a great name, Gelados de Portugal.
02:27So I decided to contact them and see if they were interested to come to Macau.
02:32The locals like the flavors because we have really Portuguese flavors like pastel de nata,
02:39chestnut with port wine.
02:43What's your favorite dish?
02:48Currently, I'm the executive chef at Vic's Rocks Hotel,
02:51so I need to look after all the preparations.
02:55We bring a lot of recipes from Macalhau we added to their menu
02:58and need to make sure it's being cooked properly.
03:02We try to go with the traditional Portuguese recipes,
03:05although we try to adapt to the local market as we have to.
03:09We even recreated one local dish called Minchi.
03:12Original is made with minced pork and beef,
03:15served on the top of rice and with fried potato cubes.
03:19So we do that version with Macalhau.
03:45I think the Portuguese culture is still very present here in Macau.
03:48There are plenty of spots here in Macau where you can feel like you are back in Portugal.
03:53For example, San Malo, Leal Senado, Ruinas de São Paulo.
03:57And I really enjoy Ruinas de São Paulo because of the greatness of it and to see such a big
04:03church there.
04:04So it's a big cultural heritage that Portugal left here.
04:08There is a very close Portuguese community here in Macau.
04:11And we tend to gather around whenever we are free from work.
04:16And we go to a local cha-chan tank.
04:18And we love to try the local snacks and the local food.
04:30Macau gave me the opportunity of building my own family, building my own business, building my career.
04:35And I feel like the Macau, you have the opportunity of being an active member of the society, of giving
04:43back to the society.
04:44I always knew my purpose here is to give back to this community, to this region that gave me this
04:52opportunity.
04:52So I'm very thankful.
04:54That's beautiful.
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