The REAL & TRUE story of Nandos chicken
How did Nandos chicken become what it is today ? A billion dollar empire ?
This is the real story of what made Nandos chicken great ! - once upon a time in a Portuguese suburb of Johannesburg - a place I used to live actually there was a small chicken shop right on Main Street as you enter not far from the actual festival grounds where today there’s also a Christian mission that looks after the homeless.
Let me make this clear - NOWHERE in the official history of Nando’s does it THANK lusitoland and that platform or mention how it both brought the Portuguese community together and kickstarted the original vision which resonated with the broader public visiting this incredible festival - so I just wanted to mention - it for the record . Something the main stream will never hear about !
There much work still to be done in South Africa and Africa to make it great and it is so important to support these platforms that protect the sanctity of the family the community and our relationship with God .!
I’m sure this festival had an impact on how mr fernando took his vision forward to its international status - its worth mentioning !
Of course we can talk about his Jewish partners and the incredible advertising and you can talk about the taste - but it was I believe the community itself that recognised the potential of this chicken as a franchise opportunity which in the beginning grew slowly but gained momentum once the branding and marketing formula was perfected - and the rest of course is history ! - the hardest part in any new business is the first steps - and those first steps happened in the thumbs up of the consumers that came to eat his excellent food at lusitoland - that’s my personal belief !
The first Nando’s is a testament that small beginnings simply need the confidence that comes from the consumer and a good cause - in the spirit of openness this is where things begin to happen - it never took off in Portugal but it did in South Africa and then the rest of the world !
The head of the entrance to the suburb not far from a mission station that looked after the poor and the homeless - every year not far from the transport museum there was a festival that occurred each year .
This festival used to bring all the Portuguese community together for a party to celebrate Portuguese culture from all the Portuguese lands .
Some links :
There were nearly a million up until 2000 until the reverse racist lass enacted by ex president Thani mbeki created an exodus of many of the Portuguese community that had already experienced the sudden discrimination of Angola and Mozambique in 1974. The hard core remained and the festival survived somehow .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_South_African
https://purplecalabash.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/lusito-land-part1/
The original
Partnership combined with good venture capital input and marketing helped propel the brand and it was greatly supported by the ever increasing South African diaspora - who can say they have not tried the Nando’s experience ? It feels a taste of home . But it must be tempered that every good idea begins when the right combination of product and partnership comes together . It’s timing and it’s the people and the product and most importantly the vision - but all these things are generated and fed by a market that approved of what you are selling ! Whoever has visited lusitoland land will attest to the strength of the Portuguese community and the fact that people are doing something good for the most needy of that community - in this case disabled children ! The concept worked because the right factors came together as one in this atmosphere .
I think this is why we cannot say that money alone makes money . It’s product and it’s idea and it’s SYNERGY !!
From Brazil from Angola and Mozambique - it was a festival of dance and of music and of food and of drink . I know because I used to sell leather jackets there and make your name on a grain of rice .
Way back in 1987 Fernandinho Duarte and his partner would get a big stand and make their special flame grilled chicken at this festival . Now remember in Portugal near Lagos in the Algarve there is a small town famous for the same type of chicken . You can visit it today . There a few restaurants all selling the same chicken cooked o the same way . This is why Nando’s chicken is not very famous in Portugal or very popular why ??- Because it’s pretty common .
But what then made Nandos chicken stand out ?
Yes the chicken was cooked well . It’s not just fast food but also a sit down restaurant .
Yes it tasted good . But it was nothing that you could say was any different to what the Portuguese people were used to eating in Portugal - like pastel da Nata from Belem restaurant in Lisbon . Chicken flame grilled is nothing new in Portugal .
It’s not that groundbreaking in terms of its originality - KFC when it first came out was .
So what in the hell made Nando’s chicken special or great ?
It was the LUSITOLAND FESTIVAL .
People came fro. All over Johannesburg to eat this fantastic chicken as well as amazing Estrada fro other restaurants - but in a community people talk and eat and dream - and the desire and vision was born to open another Nando’s chicken in another part of Johannesburg because there was a demand for it .
People talking to one another until you have a major breakthrough which came after the first three restaurants were opened - venture capital and black humour plus an attractive brand - and the same supporters leaving South Africa for a better life like in Australia - all this combined to create a successful franchise - and of course dedicated hard work ! But it was that little festival that incubated the dream - that community festival !!
And that is what made it great !
https://youtu.be/LhaA15R2gts?si=Cs5Ded8BZQ4SSwd9
Lusitoland
But what brought them together was a GOOD cause - because lusitoland - which means land of light - raised money for disabled children . A good cause and a good REASON and this celebration helped these kids each year by the thousands of rands raised by the people that visited - but Nando’s would have stayed in the dusts of obscurity had it not been for this festival . TRUE
And truly this is what made this franchise become a billion dollar idea . LUSITOLAND was the incubator ! Otherwise it would have joined in the homogeneity of the many other Angolan piri piri chicken outlets from Luanda to Lisboa to GUIA -
What made them different was this focus of collective communal energies from the diverse cultures of the Portuguese experience - and this is the miracle of Nando’s chicken -
Without the community festival there would have been no Nando’s chicken ! It would have been common .
ANY IDEA OR VISION IS BROUGHT INTO GREATNESS BY BOTH CIRCUMSTANCES - THE COLLECTIVE - where time and place intersect !
And the rest is history .
Here is another link of a mission that is housed nearby and has continued to work with the poorest of the poor in this community alongside the lusitoland association . In fact I had a friend working there for years - Charles Badenhorst . Over the years rosettenville has become more and more dangerous - another friend was murdered there ( lucky dube ) - I hope that Nando’s will one day recognise its humble beginnings and the part the community has played in its early days !
Thanks Robin Denton
For the record I invite Mr. Duarte or his partner to our PODCAST T- I -A - AFRICA UNITED to give his side of the amazing story of Nando’s chicken and look forward to interviewing him on the real AND TRUE story of Nando’s chicken !
Johannesburg is asorcual
Town that has been a melting pot for many ideas and collaborations that have birthed new realities and incredibly motivated people eg Elon musk and many others ! But let’s not forget that where there’s extreme capitalism there’s also extreme compassion -
Gandhi once deceived it as the place he made his most profound friendships - and it is so !
http://resthavenministries.co.za/contact-us/
James Hall Museum of Transport ( another interesting spot nearby )
A final note on FLAVOR
Ps if you want to compare chickens - peri peri chicken check out this town in GUIA - where this style of chicken was popularised since 1964 -
https://www.notquitenigella.com/2019/07/12/guia-algarve-portugal/
But for discerning travellers who really want to taste the original recipes - go to ANGOLA
This country was colonised for 500 years by the Portuguese until 1974 - a special kind of child grows there called -Jigundu - this is what is used in the restaurants to flavor piri piri chicken and it tastes incredible - the best chicken you will find grilled over the fire on the narrow strip of beach where people dance cheek to cheek to KIZOMBO music ( tropical band ) and yes this is the chicken that was in demand after people fled the country on 1974! -
https://thehotpepper.com/threads/gindungo-cahombo-angola.75759/
In short we are given opportunities in life to preserve culture and tradition and to make a difference on the world - and the act of sitting down together and eating is a very sacred act - one in which the Portuguese descended people take seriously - even today in the bush of Angola
The lusitoland festival simply held that joy in its hands and the vision of joy was carried to other countries in the forced displacement of many South Africans of all colours !
For that I say thank you Nandos !
https://images.app.goo.gl/ZRgZm8dRj18xPjVm6
Even Gandhi’s non violent movement that liberated India was born in Johannesburg - again from the crucible of crude capitalism and racism and attrition to a small community born in Tolstoy farm and I the protests that propelled the cause of justice forward … it is what also made many dreams manifested and still does even today !
“Johannesburg therefore had the holiest of all holy associations”, he said. Gandhi's Johannesburg
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