In Character with David Machado

By peter korn

The Portland Tribune, Nov 19, 2009

If you can't stand the heat, says David Machado, stay out of the restaurant business – it's not for those who want to live forever. Machado is the executive chef and owner of restaurants Vindalho, Lauro Kitchen and Nel Centro.

COURTESY OF John Anthony Rizzo

David Machado – the driving force behind restaurants Vindalho, Lauro Kitchen and most recently, the downtown Nel Centro – admits to having something of a fiery personality. And sometimes things can get out of hand when Machado’s in the kitchen. But if you play around with spices, you’ve got to expect some heat.

Portland Tribune: When did you know you wanted to get into the restaurant business?

David Machado: I was the kind of guy who said, “I’m going to fire up the barbecue.” I was a social cook.

I was sitting in a bar in San Francisco reading the paper and the bartender said he was going to go to his second job, which was tending bar down the street, and he needed to train somebody. I said, “I’ll go with you.” He went to Mexico and never came back to the job. And the owner of the restaurant came to me and said, “Would you like to manage the restaurant?

Tribune: Did you come from a family where food was important?

Machado: I don’t know where it comes from. I grew up in a schizophrenic household. My father was Portuguese, and my mother was Irish. My mother was a terrible cook. She did corned beef and cabbage once a year.

Tribune: Ever set fire to a kitchen?

Machado: Yeah. I was working at Pazzo in 1992 when I set fire to the shaft above the grill. We were cooking with big chunks of wood. The grill got so hot it buckled the stainless steel and jumped and ignited the sheet rock behind the wall. It’s hard to do. It caught in the studs and sheet rock and burnt up into the Vintage Plaza Hotel and damaged some rooms.

I’ve been in several fires. I had opened South Park in 1998 and the pizza oven there caught fire and went all the way up to the roof of the garage. I went out on the street and saw flames shooting out on the roof.

After that, I stopped using live wood in my restaurants. I rely on marinades now for my flavor.

Tribune: How do you handle annoying customers?

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