Igor dos Santos

At just 39 years old, Igor feels that "he's been in a kitchen all his life".

Influenced by his father who has always dedicated himself to catering with his own restaurants, from an early age at the age of 5 he already knew what it was like to make coffee and serve at the table helping his parents.

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The spirit of hospitality has always been present, if it weren't for his mother, a cook. At the age of 16 he came to Cascais to work for the IBERSOL group where he stood out for his energy and determination.

After 2 years he was invited to manage the group, where he became the company's youngest manager, completing 12 training courses, which gave him a great deal of management experience and helped the company train new managers and workers in subsequent years.

After 11 years of management, he decided to accept a new challenge of opening a restaurant with a former colleague. They opened O Pizza where they had 2 independent kitchens  and served Portuguese and Italian cuisine. This was his first big step into the world of cooking, taking inspiration from his mother.

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After 2 years, he took on a new project and went to work for the Grelhas restaurant (Casa da Guia) where he headed the kitchen for almost 8 years, from 2014 to 2022, in which in 2019 he achieved an incredible turnover of more than 1 million Euros as Chef doing the management of the kitchen and its team, as well as subsequent years.

 

He even did kitchen consultancy on a freelance basis, but it was in March 2022 that he joined Nautk as chef. Where he had international trainers such as Martin Modernstein (Sweden) and António Alexandre (Portuguese)

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Outside of the kitchen, he has a passion for art (drawing and crafts) and outdoor activities.