DSC_3256

Bringing the World Home

by

Tucked down a quiet street in Areia Preta, perhaps the last thing you would expect to find is a fusion restaurant run by a world-renowned chef. 

In November last year, Japas Macau opened its doors in the hope of bringing to the city a healthy way of enjoying food. Its chef, Anthony Sousa Tam, already has a number of successful restaurants under his belt. From Inamo and Nobu of London and Momo in Amsterdam to CHiNAR in Azerbaijan and Japas in Phuket, Anthony’s restaurants have never failed to conquer locals’ taste buds with their delicacies. But Japas Macau is different in that it is the first restaurant that the chef has opened in his hometown.

Growing up in a Portuguese family in Macau, Anthony was introduced to delicious cuisine at a young age. 

“My mother’s family is very food-oriented and used to have a little yard in Fai Chi Kei where they kept some animals and grew vegetables.”

Surrounded by good food during his childhood, Anthony believes that the experience influenced him a lot and ultimately motived him to want to create his own places where people could gather and enjoy great food. 

In the summer of 1992, Anthony left Macau for London to pursue his dream of becoming an architect. However, the money in his pocket could only sustain him for 10 days. So he found a job in a Chinese takeaway to support his studies, a move that forever changed the direction of his life.

“I did the job for two years. At that time, I had a very good chance of getting in to my course in London. However, the high fees prevented me from doing so. From that time onward, I simply decided to focus on one thing only – being a chef.”

After making this decision, Anthony continued to look for better work places to gain more experience, as well as travel around the world to learn more about different regional flavours. This was when an opportunity was presented to him, which elevated him to a new height in his career.

“I had a chance to open my first restaurant outside London many years ago called Chino Latino. The restaurant was really successful. Then people started to ask if I could give them a hand setting up those kinds of places.”

From being a full-time chef, Anthony became a kind of consultant chef developing concepts for others. In one year he opened seven restaurants in three different countries. 

After a series of successful restaurants, however, Anthony  “got a little bit fed-up” because he found that the restaurants that he opened were not delivering the products that he planned at the beginning. That’s when he decided to switch back to being a full-time chef and was later invited to go to Azerbaijan to cook for the President of the country.

Anthony explains that for his new restaurant he is combining Japanese cuisine with Spanish tapas, hence the name, Japas.  

The restaurant is currently in a trial period and he wants to encourage people to make reservations in advance so that the restaurant can control costs and prevent wasting ingredients. 

“We need to be sustainable and to look after our planet,” he says.

For Anthony, one interesting thing he has noticed about his Macau restaurant, is the number of people coming in for celebrations every single day. 

“Every single night since we opened, we have had customers celebrating birthdays or anniversaries.  In other cities I have done multi-million or even billion pound projects but there was not even one birthday cake. But in my hometown, we have to make birthday cakes every day.”

In the future, Anthony is planning projects in the mainland that involve the promotion of healthy lifestyles. He also plans to promote the idea of healthy eating styles in Macau, such as avoiding sugar, using vegetables as ingredients for desserts and pushing the concept of urban farming. 

“It is very scary to see children suffering from diseases such as diabetes. The medication for the future is food and you have to eat healthily.”

Facebook
WhatsApp
Threads
X
Email

More from the author

More of this category

Featured

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Older Issues

Living and Arts Magazine

現已發售 NOW ON SALE

KNOW MORE LiVE BETTER