Growing up in Galicia, Spain, 24-year-old Victor Santos was a hair’s breadth away from the Atlantic Ocean. As a consequence, the meals of his childhood were moulded and framed around the bounty of the sea. “In Galicia, we are like the seafood suppliers for the rest of Spain,” he says, laughing.
Santos says that his own mother wasn’t a very good cook, which is what spurred his adventures in the kitchen from the age of 12, as he wanted his family to enjoy good home-cooked meals. “My mum didn’t cook very well so that is why I tried to improve our meals. Even when we went out to restaurants, I would eat something and be like ‘This dish is nice.
Maybe I can try (making) it at home’. My efforts may not have borne the same quality, but I kept trying,” he says. As a young adult, Santos decided to pursue a culinary arts education and eventually ended up travelling and working all over Spain.
Once he had figured out the ins and outs of Spanish cuisine, he worked in Switzerland before eventually ending up in Bali, Indonesia where he was then offered the opportunity to head a Spanish restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Santos is the passionate young chef behind Bocado’s interesting new array of Spanish dishes. And that is how Santos ended up helming the kitchen of Bocado, a sprawling, sun-dappled Spanish restaurant in KL’s affluent Damansara Heights.
Since he has taken over, Santos has gone about adding his own Galician touches to the menu, which was previously more Mediter.