Nando’s – Its Portuguese-Mozambican cuisine!

I went to Nando’s for lunch.

I tried to work out what type of food Nando’s is. I’ve found out.

Its Portuguese-Mozambican cuisine!

Really? o.O How did that happen then?

Timeline

Picture from Google maps.

1498 Vasco da Gama, exploring for Portugal, reached the coast of Mozambique in 1498.

1500 From about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts became regular ports of call on the new route to the east.

16-17th centuries Portuguese venture into interior. Following military campaigns, colonists set up trading posts and mining enterprises and parcel-out land to European settlers.

1752: Portugal announces that Mozambique is now their colony. The slave trade starts.

18th-19th centuries – Mozambique becomes major slave-trading centre.

1869 In 1869 the Portuguese officially abolished slavery, but in effect it continued nonetheless.

1878 The slave trade drew to an end only after the publication of reports on the conditions in Mozambique by the missionary-explorer David Livingstone. A decree of total abolition was published in 1878.

1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush was a gold rush in 1886 that led to the establishment of Johannesburg, South Africa.

1961 Forced labour (Chibalo) is at last abolished in Mozambique.

1975 Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975. Large numbers of Portuguese residents emigrated shortly after, most of them to Portugal, where they were called retornados, while others moved to neighbouring Malawi, Zimbabwe, or South Africa, and/or Brazil and the United States.

Between 1924 and 1972, over 50,000 white Portuguese-speaking immigrants moved to South Africa, mostly from Portugal, but also from Madeira and Mozambique.

After 1975, many more white Mozambicans moved to South Africa, and many of them settled in Rosettenville. Rosettenville is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It lies to the south of the city centre.

1987 The first ever Nando’s restaurant was opened in Rosettenville. The first restaurant began in 1987 when Robert Brozin and Fernando Duarte bought a restaurant called Chickenland in Rosettenville.

Nando’s History

The Portuguese settlers to Mozambique were introduced to pili pili chili by the African Mozambicans who had incorporated it in their cuisine. The term ‘pili pili’ is Swahili for ‘pepper pepper’. The settlers began to use piri piri in their own daily cooking. Many Mozambicans of Portuguese origins relocated to Johannesburg in search of gold and carried piri piri recipes to South Africa. The restaurant has its origins in a mining town in South Africa, where industries catering to the mining communities began to grow in Rosettenville.

Portuguese-Mozambicans Robert Brozin and Fernando Duarte bought a restaurant called Chickenland in Rosettenville, southern Johannesburg in South Africa. They renamed the restaurant Nando’s, after Duarte. The restaurant incorporated influences from former Portuguese colonists from Mozambique, many of whom had settled on the south-eastern side of Johannesburg, after their homeland’s independence in 1975. The logo is derived from the Rooster of Barcelos. The initial design and corporate identity was developed by Mark Bischoff and Bruce Gemmel.

Picture from Google maps.

So, what’s the story behind the cockerel logo?

Picture from nandos.co.uk

The idealisation of the Barcelos rooster derives from a legend concerning a Gallego who was sentenced to hang, despite his protests of innocence. In a last-minute appeal to the judge, who was enjoying dinner at the time, the condemned man-made a bold statement: If this claim of innocence was true, the roasted rooster on the judge’s plate would get up and crow. Suddenly, a gorgeous scarlet-plumed cockerel rose from the plate, crowing loud and long. The man was acquitted of course!