Getting people together. We’re often abroad, missing everyone, the weather, the food, hearing people speak Portuguese, etc. The fact that we’re all in the same space and not in a noisy restaurant (eating international food), allows us to relax, eat a traditional Portuguese dish (sometimes it’s hard to get some of the ingredients, depending on the location, but we always manage to find something) while having a nice conversation.

As appetizers some soft cheese with grilled sausages (there’s nothing like it). For the main course, very good seafood and grilled fish. These are very difficult to find when you’re abroad, and nobody cooks fish like the Portuguese. Obviously accompanied by nice wine (depending on the preferences). For desert, one of the thousand traditional sweets (yes, eggs can be used in other ways and not only cooked, poached, scrambled or fried). And well a meal can never end without coffee and a nice old brandy ☺

Bacalhau à Gomes Sá (yes, I’m avoiding the obvious). Why? Because it’s a very rich dish, with lots of spices and a long cooking process with several phases. It usually turns out well, and everyone likes it.

Sometimes it looks like a fish stew (caldeirada) because of the many different themes I have to deal with on a daily basis, and for the many “confusions” where I usually see myself involved (or that someone gets me involved).

Well here’s a tricky question. Those that know me know that I like to cook a nice pork dish but that is very difficult in some countries where CELFOCUS is operating (whether because it is difficult to find the main ingredient or because we don’t want to offend our client ☺). Having said that, I would probably choose one of the codfish dishes (yes it is easy to find this ingredient because many people take it when they travel) so that people can have a little taste from Portugal.

The secret is to never let it overcook. It may be close, but never let it cross that point. The same happens in our projects – we never let it cross the no-return line, ruin the relationship with our client and therefore jeopardise the project’s delivery and quality.

I wouldn’t bet in only one delicacy because like our country and gastronomy, CELFOCUS does not have only one skill. I would select cheese, sausages and our most traditional starters (codfish cookies, codfish fritters, octopus salad, etc.) For the main course I would go for a nice roast suckling pig, I would definitively not choose fish (more than half people in the world think that fish are fillets, and have no head or fish bones... it would only add more confusion to the pot ☺ ).