Businessman Vinicius Figueira will be in charge of the gastronomy at Alô Alô Bahia’s 15th anniversary party, for guests only and with a show by Gilberto Gil

Born in Cabo Fio and raised in Búzios, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro, businessman Vinicius Figueira will be in charge of the gastronomy at Alô Alô Bahia’s 15th anniversary party. The event – for guests only and with a show by Gilberto Gil – will be held on November 29th, at Casa Pia de São Joaquim, in Salvador.

Born into a poor family, Vini started working at an early age. His desire was to give a cement house to his grandmother, who raised him in a wooden shack – the place where his interest in cooking was sparked. “I saw my grandmother making dumplings and other foods and I was interested in learning,” said the chef. He currently runs four restaurants in the city, as well as a buffet that bears his name.

Figueira plans to open new operations and has also invested in real estate. Furthermore, he is in charge of the only CASACOR Bahia restaurant, in Ondina. For him, being at the Alô Alô Bahia party has an important meaning.

“This event will be on a very special date, when we celebrate 15 years of Alô Alô Bahia and 10 years of my buffet. We thought of some surprises and nothing better than taking some of our food from Bahia. People will come from everywhere and I couldn’t help but present some of our food”, he said.

Vini arrived in Bahia when he was around 20 years old. He came to consult at an Asian restaurant and never came back. In the capital of Bahia, he took on the position of chef at the establishment where he worked and soon decided to start his own business.

“First I had Bistrô do Vini and, soon after, Cantina do Vini. This is over 14 years old. Undertaking has never been easy. I started with three, four employees. Today, we already have 156 employees under the CLT regime across all businesses. These are people who have been working with me for 14, 12, 10 years”, he highlights.

Vini Figueira claims to be a man with a simple life. Father of a 15-year-old girl, who lives in Finland, the chef does not give up on monitoring his daughter’s development, with whom he shares one of the things he loves most in life: traveling.

With an intense work routine, Vini always sets aside Mondays to go to his farm, in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, where he abandons the farm and takes on an old pair of pants and a pair of boots to experience the simplicity he loves so much.

It is also there on the farm that the chef disconnects. Contrary to what many people might think, he doesn’t have a gourmet routine in his daily life: “I love eating at home, those simple foods. I have Ju, a wonderful cook who prepares delicious things, such as mocofato, stew, caruru and other dishes to welcome friends at home, something I won’t give up.”