If you ask Regi Gallina about where his love of food began, he will fondly recall long lunches with his extended family in Soro Caba just outside Sao Paolo, his uncles cooking brisket, short rib and pork belly over charcoal for hours on end.
Regi remembers soft, spongy Pao de Queijo (cheese bread) and salads bursting with chilli, lime and coriander as everyone caught up on the gossip and laughed about everything and nothing. At 19 he decided to take his love of food to a professional level and trained as a chef – and since then, he’s worked in restaurants in Brazil and New Zealand (he came here for a one-year holiday in 2008 and never went home) and as a Culinary Arts tutor at NZMA for the last few years.
“I grew up in a place where everything came fresh from the markets or the land around us – meat, eggs, veggies, fruit. So I love teaching students to go back to basics; it’s the way food should be – great ingredients prepared simply, with clever touches of flavour magic!”
Regi’s dream has always been to bring the food from his home to New Zealanders so they can experience some of the joy he had growing up. “It is so exciting to be part of something like this, with so many passionate people cooking authentic food from their homelands. I worked for Everybody Eats for a while and I really saw the power of food to connect all people, no matter what their background.
Tambo is all about modest bites of robust and intense flavour based on the tastes of Brazil. “We want to bring a little bit of the shared dining experience, similar to that of our homeland – a fusion of flavours. It’s all about sharing precious moments and creating good times to remember.”