Macanese cuisine is a living record of Macau's East-meets-West palate, yet for generations it survived only as oral family lore — Antonieta Manhão wrote her elders' recipes down, dish by dish, and carried this home cooking onto an international stage with a single trilingual cookbook.
Antonieta F. Manhão (known as Chef Neta) is a Macau-born Macanese chef, cooking instructor and cookbook author dedicated to preserving and promoting Macanese cuisine. She teaches Macanese cuisine at the University of Tourism of Macau, runs her own cooking studio, and with her cookbook 《土生家嚐》 carried this nationally recognised intangible-heritage cuisine onto the stage of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Profile
- Chinese Name: 馬央
- Portuguese Name: Antonieta F. Manhão (Chef Neta)
- Birthplace: Macau (Macanese; birth year ~1970, inferred from press)
- Domains: Culture · Everyday · Food
- Industry: Macanese cuisine · Cooking instruction · Cookbook publishing
- Profession: Chef · Cooking instructor · Author
- Affiliation: Confraria da Gastronomia Macaense / University of Tourism (Macau)
Background
Antonieta Manhão is Macanese (土生葡人), born and raised in Macau. Macanese cuisine is the distinctive culinary tradition born of Macau's East-meets-West history, blending Portuguese, Southeast Asian and South Chinese ingredients and techniques — for generations it survived mainly as oral family knowledge, with little systematic documentation. In her earlier years she studied Thai cuisine in Chiang Mai and Portuguese and French cuisine in Lisbon, before turning her focus to preserving and passing down Macanese cuisine, recording and organising recipes handed down orally through her family.
Career
I. From family flavours to professional advocacy
Manhão has devoted herself professionally to Macanese cuisine for over a decade, running her own cooking studio and teaching Macanese cuisine courses at the University of Tourism of Macau, bringing home-kitchen dishes into teaching and public advocacy. In 2016 she competed on the Thai version of "Iron Chef" representing Macanese cuisine; although she lost 59.5 to 66.5, the appearance raised her profile and carried Macanese cuisine beyond Macau.
II. The Confraria and City of Gastronomy advocacy
Manhão has been a member of the Confraria da Gastronomia Macaense since 2016 and has represented the association in Macao Government Tourism Office "City of Gastronomy" activities (such as the 2023 showcase). Macanese gastronomy was inscribed on China's National Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2021, and Macau is a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.
III. Receita di Casa: publication and award (2025)
In January 2025, Manhão's cookbook 《土生家嚐》 (Portuguese Receita di Casa, English Homemade Macanese Cuisine) was published by the International Institute of Macao (IIM), collecting nineteen traditional Macanese home recipes in Chinese, Portuguese and English. In November that year, the book won two prizes — Best Trilingual Cookbook and Best Portuguese Cookbook — at the 31st Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Defining Moments
1. Turning oral recipes into a book
Macanese cuisine long lacked systematic documentation; Manhão recorded and verified her family's orally transmitted recipes dish by dish and published them in three languages, giving this home cuisine a transmissible, verifiable text — her most representative contribution.
2. A Macau home cuisine on an international stage
Receita di Casa's two wins at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards brought recognition to Macanese cuisine — an intangible-heritage cuisine of Macau's Macanese community — in the international cookbook world, echoing Macau's "City of Gastronomy" identity.
Public Character
Public accounts of Antonieta Manhão cluster around the keywords Macanese, Macanese cuisine, cooking instructor, cookbook author, heritage preservation. Through documentation and teaching, she has brought a cuisine sustained mainly by family transmission into text and the classroom, making her one of the representative figures in preserving Macau's Macanese food culture. This archive records only her publicly verifiable publications, awards and community involvement in neutral terms.
Note: Antonieta Manhão (Chef Neta) is a different person from Mariana, a Macanese cook who runs the restaurant "Old Place" (老地方); some reporting conflates the two, and this archive records only facts verifiable for Manhão.
Key Achievements
- Author of the cookbook Receita di Casa / Homemade Macanese Cuisine (《土生家嚐》), published 2025 by the International Institute of Macao, collecting nineteen traditional Macanese recipes
- Best Trilingual Cookbook and Best Portuguese Cookbook at the 31st Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (2025, Riyadh)
- Lecturer in Macanese cuisine at the University of Tourism of Macau and proprietor of her own cooking studio
- Member of the Confraria da Gastronomia Macaense (since 2016), a long-time advocate of Macanese cuisine, a nationally recognised intangible-heritage cuisine
Information compiled from International Institute of Macao (IIM) publishing materials, an MGM China Holdings official press release, and public reporting from Macau News, Hoje Macau and Jornal Tribuna de Macau, among others. If anything is inaccurate or needs updating, please contact us — we aim to respond within 48 hours.
