Business is booming as city cafes snap up Portuguese pastries
IN recent years, we’ve seen the Portuguese pasteis de nata rise in popularity across the world. Shops dedicated to these Portuguese pastries have popped up all across the UK, coming in flavours that range from the classic egg custard tart to peanut butter and Nutella. The demand for these popular pastries is no different in Wales – and after one man set up shop baking the tarts from his Swansea home, he has seen his business boom. Maxwel De Freitas, 50, started No. 69 Brazilian Food in the midst of the pandemic. He had been working with capoeira, a Brazilian marshal art, when a friend asked him if he had a niche in the market for Portuguese tarts – or pasteis de nata.
“I started to prepare some for them, and slowly things started to get known and people liked it, and we’re moving forward,” Maxwel said.
Getting up at the crack of dawn each day, Maxwel bakes everything from his kitchen at home in Brynmill, preparing the classic egg custard tarts as well as flavours including raspberry, blueberry, Nutella, and coconut.
“Some of the time, I can start preparing the day before, in the evening. By 4.30am, I’m already in the kitchen working,” Maxwel said.
“From 4.30am to 10.30am is really busy – baking, and finishing each one. Each pastel de nata needs a personal touch. I prepare, bake, deliver, clean and then get ready to prepare again.”
Having started his business in the summer of 2020, Maxwel has seen it grow and grow. As well as baking for individual customers, he now supplies seven cafes and restaurants across Swansea.
Maxwel’s pasteis de nata, and more, are now stocked at Done and Dusted Cafe, Dylan’s at Cwmdonkin, Full of Grace, Mumbles Coffee, Microlot Coffee House, Storm in a Teacup, and Rosselli’s Cafe.
Maxwel gives himself a break during his busy day to pick his children up from school and have food with them, before returning to prepare for baking again.
From childhood, what’s familiar is the magical moment of baking. Between 4.30 in the morning and 6am it is completely silent and during the time that I am working is the time that all these memories come up, almost a meditation Maxwel De Freitas
He came to Swansea from Brazil in April 2004 to teach capoeira, the Brazilian martial art, with a group. That job saw him travel around the UK to host and participate in workshops. However, the pandemic has put many of the capoeira events and classes on hold – so he decided to adapt and started a business during lockdown.
He added: “In the same way it was scary, it was challenging because there were some areas I was familiar with – not pasteis de nata specifically, because that was something I learned during the process as well – but the initial idea was to do Brazilian food in general.
“I was under the impression that some of the friends who liked my dishes would come and say ‘Can I have this?’ so I was much more chilled thinking that I was going to work that way, but it took a turn that I didn’t expect.
“People started to talk about it and when it went to the shops, people started to know about it a little bit more, and I think I was happy that I could provide a good quality product when people were looking for something different or were at home enjoying a memory when they were eating – remembering a treat.
“It was a lucky moment for me to start in what is a very tragic situation in the world.”
Growing up in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, Maxwel said he has loved to cook and bake since his childhood and has happy memories of learning to do so with his family.
“My mum used to ask me to help her to make the cakes so she would explain the need of each element and how they would interact to produce the cake itself,” he said.
“My nan, when I used to go to the countryside, would collect the eggs fresh from the nest. I remember going with my grandpa to get peanuts. I never knew they came from roots, I always thought they came from a bush, but I remember trying them and cooking with them.
“From childhood, what’s familiar is the magical moment of baking. Between
4.30 in the morning and 6am it is completely silent and during the time that I am working is the time that all these memories come up, almost a meditation.”
Maxwel said he feels privileged to be able to carry these memories with him in the work he does now.
Along with the pasteis de nata, Maxwel makes sandwiches, Pao de Queijo – a Brazilian cheese bread – Brazilian polenta cake, and Brazilian creme caramel.
While setting up a business during a pandemic can seem like a daunting task, Maxwel says that he has received a positive response from the community in Swansea.
“The response has been amazing in a lot of ways. Some people in the beginning, even those not sure about the product, made their orders, gave it as a present to family members, to support, to motivate, to keep going.
“The first few months, when I wasn’t working with the coffee shops, they were very supportive. A lot of people were coming around. I had very nice feedback from everyone – not necessarily positive, but honest feedback. That was great to help me understand the product and move it in a way.
“It’s very difficult to work with something that recognises a kind of cultural heritage from somewhere – and very well known – because everyone has a kind of idea about it. So to work with that, and learning outside of the place where the product originated is very complicated, so it was a lot of responsibility.
“I’m happy to think that we’re doing something that is of a very high standard even with the freedom of creating flavours that they don’t have in a few places around the world because to not have the link with the culture gives me a little bit more freedom to create and to try to experiment with the product – we are selling the product, not selling the culture.”