José Manuel Bento dos Santos (born in 1947) is a Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 cook

Cook (profession)

A cook is a person who prepares food for consumption. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Canada this profession requires government approval ....

, gastronomer, businessman, trader

Trader (finance)

A trader is someone in finance who buys and sells financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, commodities and derivatives. A broker who simply fills buy or sell orders is not a trader, as they are merely executing instructions given to them. According to the Wall Street Journal in 2004, a managing...

, metal

Metal

A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

s broker

Broker

A broker is a party that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller, and gets a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal...

, writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and chemical engineer

Chemical engineer

In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...

. Bento dos Santos studied chemical-industrial engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico

Instituto Superior Técnico

Instituto Superior Técnico is a reputed school of engineering, part of Universidade Técnica de Lisboa . IST is the largest and the most prestigious school of engineering in Portugal...

 (IST), Technical University of Lisbon

Technical University of Lisbon

The Technical University of Lisbon is a Portuguese public university. It was created in 1930 in Lisbon, as a confederation of older schools, and comprises, nowadays, the faculties and institutes of veterinary medicine; agricultural sciences; economics and business administration; engineering,...

. During is early university years he played rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 and was also the manager of the Portugal national rugby team

Portugal national rugby team

Portugal national rugby team may refer to:* Portugal national rugby union team* Portugal national rugby union team * Portugal national rugby league team...

 in 1967/1968. He started his professional career as an employee of Companhia União Fabril

Companhia União Fabril

The Companhia União Fabril is a Portuguese chemical corporation and a part of Grupo José de Mello.-History:The company was founded by Alfredo da Silva in 1871 and managed by his descendents, including José Manuel de Mello as a family-run business conglomerate. CUF was one of the largest and most...

 (CUF), the largest Portuguese business conglomerate

Conglomerate (company)

A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...

 before the Carnation Revolution

Carnation Revolution

The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...

 in 1974. During the turmoil of the revolution, indeed a left-wing military coup, CUF was forcibly nationalized by the revolutionary government and collapsed. Bento dos Santos, together with other partners such as Eduardo Catroga

Eduardo Catroga

Eduardo Catroga, is a Portuguese economist and former minister of Finance for two years during the Cavaco Silva's PSD government between 1993 and 1995. After had been an employee of Companhia União Fabril before the Carnation Revolution of 1974, he co-founded in Lisbon with José Bento dos Santos,...

, founded the metals brokerage and trading company Quimibro. In the late 1980s, Pedro Passos Coelho

Pedro Passos Coelho

Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho , is Prime Minister of Portugal. Passos Coelho started very early in politics, becoming the national leader of the youth branch of the Social Democratic Party...

, future Prime Minister of Portugal, was invited by a cousin to work there as a collaborator. Bento dos Santos studied also economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 at the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão of the Technical University of Lisbon

Technical University of Lisbon

The Technical University of Lisbon is a Portuguese public university. It was created in 1930 in Lisbon, as a confederation of older schools, and comprises, nowadays, the faculties and institutes of veterinary medicine; agricultural sciences; economics and business administration; engineering,...

, but he did not graduate. Beyond Quimibro, Bento dos Santos founded other ventures like Quinta do Monte d'Oiro, a winery

Winery

A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of...

. In the 2000s, Bento dos Santos became popular due to his cuisine

Cuisine

Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...

 progames O Sentido do Gosto (2007) on the Portuguese television RTP

Rádio e Televisão de Portugal

Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, S.A.,commonly known as RTP, is Portugal's public service broadcasting organization. It operates four terrestrial television channels and three national radio channels, as well as several satellite and cable offerings....

 and Segredos do Vinho (SIC, 2004). He also published a book of cuisine with the title O Sentido do Gosto as well as Subtilezas Gastronómicas – receitas à volta de um vinho (Assírio & Alvim, 2005). He is affiliated with the International Gastronomy Academy, the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs

Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs

La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs is an international gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1950. The Chaîne is based on the traditions and practices of the old French royal guild of goose roasters, whose authority gradually expanded to the roasting of all poultry, meat and game...

, the Confraria do Vinho do Porto, the Académie des Psycologues du Goût, and is a chevalier of both des Entonneurs Rabelaisiens and du Tastevin.