Lou Chi Seng, director and executive chef of a famous restaurant Restaurante Platao in Macao receives an interview from CRI on Wednesday, December 16, 2009. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/ Xu Leiying]

by Xu Leiying

While many people 60 years of age or older have already retired and are beginning to enjoy their lives at home, Lou Chi Seng is still busy at work in Macao.

The 60-year-old executive chef of a famous restaurant in Macao has never stopped working, although he has a capable team of professionals in the kitchen.

Every day after he goes swimming, Lou works for about 11 hours between 12 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Before Macao's return to China in 1999, Lou had worked as a chef for seven governors of Macao for 24 years. After Macao's return, he bid farewell to the last governor from Portugal and began to serve ordinary people at a small restaurant called Restaurante Platao.

The job change prompted a change in Lou's mindset.

"In the first six months after China resumed sovereignty over Macao, I was unhappy because when I was working for the governors of Macao, everybody respected me, but I didn't know if they would respect me any more after I left that job." said Lou Chi Seng.

To some extent, the second phase of Lou's career has breathed new life into him.

"Later, when I found they were still respecting me, I felt much better." said he.

But Lou soon realized that he had to deal with some new challenges such as how to make first-class dishes out of common ingredients instead of the top ones he had used in the kitchen of Macao's governors.

The other tough task for him was to attract more consumers.

"On the opening day of our restaurant, only two customers came in to try our dishes. And on the second day, five. We were really worried." Lou said.

Fortunately, the locals came to realize and appreciate Lou's culinary skills. Since several domestic and foreign media outlets have done reports on both Lou and his restaurant, word about his delicious dishes has spread far and wide, bringing lots of foreigners and tourists from the Chinese mainland to Restaurante Platao.

More mainlanders have been visiting Macao since 2001 to sample Portuguese cuisine. Many of them have been attracted to Lou's restaurant. Currently, tourists from the Chinese mainland account for approximately 30 percent of his total consumers.

Now, Lou's main concern is how to solve the problems of limited space and the rapidly increasing number of customers. He is planning to open a second restaurant to introduce Macanese dishes that combine both Chinese and Portuguese flavors. He says he is considering Shanghai as a potential location for the restaurant.