G: Tell us about your business: What do you do? What did inspire you to start?
I was born in Rio and have travelled, lived and worked all over Brasil. I love it. So when Jamie asked me about “that Brasilian restaurant thing with skewers”, it was easy to say yes. He could see in 2011 that Brasil was finally coming of age, and sure enough here we are today with the whole world watching Brasil (whether you love football or not).
G: What is unique about what you do?
Cabana is based on the traditional Brasilian service called “rodizio”, where the waiters tour the room bringing you more and more food until you say stop. It’s most common in steakhouses (“churrascarias”), but is also common in pizzerias and some other restaurants. It relies on the all-you-can-eat formula.
Some people try to do that in Britain, but we think it is far from the original, because it relies upon limitless great quality meat, in every cut, and very high staffing to get the ballet right. Both of these are prohibitively expensive in the UK, so you end up paying an expensive price and being offered the cheaper cuts much more than the noble cuts: In Brasil, you can skip sausages and chicken hearts, and just get the picanha (cap of rump) guy to carve for you all meal long. In Cabana, you order and pay for what you eat: want it cheap and cheerful, we’ll bring you some sausages. Want more and we’ll give you the full mixed grill or rib-eye. You can always order more.
Secondly, as well as the very typical Brasilian dishes (like the bar snacks, or parmesan crusted pork tenderloin), there are many original Cabana dishes, with Brasilian ingredients, like our best-selling Spicy Malagueta Chicken, made with the ubiquitous Brasilian chill.
G: What would you say has been your most memorable experience while developing your business?
Too many to mention, it has been a real pleasure. i suppose I am always thrilled when Brasilians come and realise we are doing something different, but that it is a new, European way of making Brasilian flavours. We also had a memorable night eating grilled chicken and drinking cachaça in Rio, but that’s a long story.
G: How do you select the menu for the restaurants?
It’s a great collaboration between Jamie, Lizzy and me. He’s very English in his tastes, i like the original Brasilian food, and Lizzy stands in the middle, championing non meat-eaters. The fact is, Brasilian food is not a great gastronomy: it needs adapting, and we seem to have found a good balance, helped all the time by David Rood our Executive Chef, who actually develops the recipes.
G: What does the future has in store for your business?
The future looks good: we opened 5 restaurants in 2 years, and plan 5 more each year for the next 4 years. We are aiming outside London for the first time, and some exciting spin-offs and events, especially with this year’s Brasil World Cup. We are having a lot of fun, business is really good, and I am thrilled to be working with a county that has given me such pleasure.
