Up close and personal with Belém Café director
We got a chance to speak with one of the directors of Belém Café and Bakery, Shaun De Carvalho, and he opened up to us about his food journey to success.
SHAUN De Carvalho is one of two directors at the Belém Bakery and Confectionery in Regents Park and Belém Cafe and Restaurant in Glenanda and shares his love for the South with us as a true ‘South boy’.
The chef was born in the South and attended Townsview Primary School and John Orr Technical High School as it was the only school offering hospitality as a subject. He then went on to study business management at the Midrand Graduate Institute and joined the Protea Hotels.
He spent his first two years at the Protea Hotel by Marriott Johannesburg Parktonian All-Suite in Braamfontein, his third year at Protea Hotel by Marriott Johannesburg Wanderers and his final year at Protea Hotel Fire and Ice Johannesburg Melrose Arch where he was part of the opening team.
After attaining his full diploma in cookery and culinary arts, the qualified chef was employed as a chef at the Protea Hotel Fire and Ice Johannesburg Melrose Arch. Thereafter he worked as a chef at The Michelangelo Hotel for over a year. Shaun was then offered a head chef position at the age of 25 at Cantare in Montecasino.
“This was a different experience and I was privileged to get a head chef position at the age of 25,” said Shaun, who has been living in Linmeyer all his life.
He left Montecasino after 13 months and worked at the Compass Group SA for three and a half years as an executive chef. He got married and welcomed his firstborn child just before opening up his own Portuguese family restaurant in Bassonia called Tresca. This restaurant was closed after 14 months.
Shaun went back to work at Compass Group SA at Emperors Palace as an executive chef running the canteen division and feeding between 500 to 1 000 people daily.
In 2001 a family friend and now partner, John Lourenco, became a silent partner at a bakery in Regents Park, which we now know as Belém Bakery. The bakery was established in 1978 and it was only in 2012 that Shaun was approached by John to also get on board. Together they uplifted the bakery to what it is today and are now big suppliers of many big events like Lusito Land.
The partners decided to take the catering side of the business to the people in 2013 and they now do bigger events for companies as well. It was only last year that Shaun and John were given the opportunity to open the Belém Café and Restaurant in Glenanda. With many big events, festivals and functions still on Belém’s calendar, Shaun has his hands full between two little girls and the two shops.
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