Never let it overcook

Flash interview with Migration Specialist and Chef Rodrigo Santos

c — We know that you really enjoy cooking for your colleagues. Why is it so special for you?

RS — 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.

c — Which meal would you recommend to celebrate the Go Live of a really difficult project?

RS — 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 ☺

c — If the Technology we develop at CELFOCUS was one of the many ways to cook codfish, which one would it be? Why?

RS — 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.

c — Which traditional Portuguese dish reminds you of your work at CELFOCUS?

RS — 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).

c — If you had to cook a meal for your most difficult client, what would the main course be? Why?

RS — 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.

c — How can you recover an overcooked dish? How do we do it in similar situations with our projects for our clients?

RS — 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.

c — Which gastronomic delicacy would you recommend for our next presence in the Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress?

RS — 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 ☺ ).