DUBAI: In his thirties, Sergio Cruz was a marketing manager, working a typical office job in his home country, Portugal. Then, he made the bold decision to change careers. Cooking had always been a part of his life — “I would come from school, and my mother would just prepare me a steak or fish, and I would help her.
I was quite independent from a young age, so I would cook for myself,” he tells Arab News — but he could no longer ignore that it was also his passion. “It just came out naturally. I always want to learn things and, in the kitchen, there is a lot to learn.
There are so many different types of cuisines. It is a constant evolution and you are always learning,” he says. Cruz began his culinary career as a trainee chef before moving to Switzerland, where he spent five years refining his craft before taking on his first chef’s position, in Dubai.
Now, Cruz is chef de cuisine at Jamaa — an alfresco casual-dining venue in Saudi Arabia’s Nujuma, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve located just off the coast of the Kingdom in the Red Sea. Here, Cruz talks cooking times, anchovies, and the dish that brings back childhood memories, and offers a salmon and barley risotto recipe. Probably over- or under-cooking.
New chefs tend to get a bit anxious, and my best advice would be to familiarize yourself with different cooking times, taste as you go, and try different things. It can be very helpful to make some notes about what works and what doesn’t. It’s just trial and .