Luis S•••

About

On the record

Luis Simões was born in Ponte de Vagos in 1990, but it is in Praia de Mira where he spends his childhood and that he defines as "his" hometown. He was still very young when cooking came across his life, by necessity it is true, but the joy for the garden, for the flavours, for the aromas quickly became his main occupation. At the age of 14, he headed towards Coimbra to join the School of Tourism and Hotel Studies of Coimbra, where he took a course in cuisine and pastry. During this time, he was forced to grow and do something else. His curiosity and desire to learn led him to study and simultaneously workin catering and several hotels in the city, as part-time. He took his degree in Cookery and Food Production at the Estoril Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotel Studies and did his Master in Hotel Management at the School of Tourism and Maritime Technology of the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria. Throughout his life we can highlight some professional experiences in large hotel chains such as the Ritz Carlton in Tenerife, the Hilton Group in Prague and the Pestana Group in Sao Tome and Principe. His last stop in Lusitanian lands, was as Chief Operating Officer Assistant at PestanaManagement, in Lisbon. He traveled to Timor-Leste to serve as the Chief Executive at the Novo Turismo Hotel in Dili, a space that opened in 2014. A true personal and professional school and that, as he says,"is a contribution to a young country, which for a young person like me, gives meaning to my life." Given his valences in management, he became Operations Manager of the hotel. Some time later, the hotel owner invited him to embrace another project and open the new television and radio channel as sales and marketing manager. The career started in this company in 2014, ended in 2018 with the need to finish his latest book and embrace other projects. In 2016, he launches his first book,"Sabores da Lusofonia" and in 2018 launches his second book,"Sabor de Timor"