Name \ Bruno Santos
Age | 44
Title | Operations director at Macao Bar Concept (MBC), International Bar Association (IBA) president
Years living in Macao | 40
Macao in one word | Beautiful
What got you hooked into mixology?
That takes me back almost 20 years. I love to cook, but to work in a kitchen means you are not interacting with guests. I love to communicate, to make people happy. In bartending, I am in direct contact with them and I can also create. So, it was a mix of passions: creating, serving and interacting.
A drink you’ve made with your key ingredient.
We had a very popular drink many years ago called the “Mango Lat Chiu”, mixing this iconic fruit with “lat chiu”, which means chilli in Cantonese, and was introduced through the presence of the Portuguese in the Orient. Macao and Portugal were the soul of this drink.
Does Macao ever creep into your cocktail creations?
My goal has always been to connect stories and history with liquids. This is the base of my inspiration. We go through a lot of local ingredients and local stories to connect and build a menu and, most importantly, connect ingredients with history.
What’s a cocktail ingredient that tastes like Macao?
Local fruits and botanicals. I have been studying Macao’s little botanical treasures for a long time, and the city is quite diverse in terms of botanicals. There’s a lot of fruit trees and herbs. One of the most popular fruits that grows in Macao are mangoes, so I would say mango is my key ingredient here.
Five essentials for a bar to impress?
The most important is hospitality. You don’t really need to have the most beautiful venue, but if you have the most beautiful soul, no matter where it is, you will always feel at home. And if you are at home, you’re comfortable. Second, having an impressive and accessible menu, well balanced and that can cater to different tastes. Third is having a team, because you cannot impress a guest all by yourself; you really need a team to provide quality service. Next is the ambience, especially the lighting and music. And last but certainly not least – innovation, which captivates people to visit your bar.
What’s in store for Macao’s mixology scene?
We will organise this year the World Cocktail Championship (WCC), from October 19 to 24. The world knows that Macao is going to be the cocktail competition capital this year and we are very proud of that. We really want people to come to Macao and fall in love with the city. We are expecting at least 700 bartenders and about 2,000 visitors. And, for the first time, we’ll have an “amazing mixologist race,” with bartenders running around the city, finding ingredients and creating a cocktail at the end.
What’s the cocktail that reflects Macao’s unique heritage?
The ‘Porto Flip’. It’s made with port wine, which is one of the most iconic Portuguese spirits, and egg yolk. I think it will represent Macao really nicely, with the presence of the Portuguese and a velvety, silky mouthfeel that evokes Asia. And then you can twist it with a lot of regional herbs and roots.
