Daniel Teixeira-Gomes

My Heritage

I was born in Sheffield — City of Steel — just in time to watch my family's heritage trampled underfoot by mass production and economic collapse. On one side: the name Teixeira-Gomes carries centuries of Portuguese history, stretching back to the age of Columbus (legend has it an ancestor or two made it to the Americas before him, and with considerably less bloodshed). The most recent family luminary was the statesman and writer Manuel Teixeira Gomes. On the other: my maternal grandfather was the last craftsman in the Joseph Rodgers & Sons line — a once world-famous maker of silver and heraldic edged weapons, operating in Sheffield since the late 17th century.

My Family

I'm the oldest of three sons, born to Pamela and José Gomes in the same year humans first set foot on the moon. My folks had escaped two disasters in one go — the Sheffield industrial collapse and a bloody political revolution in Portugal — and then set about proving that passion and attention to detail can beat almost any odds. In a pre-Naked-Chef world, they opened an à la carte restaurant on the River Trent: The New Ferry Restaurant, at the site of a Roman river crossing, just outside a medieval market town, in the teeth of one of England's harder economic stretches. They achieved international acclaim. It became a regular stopping-off point for Portuguese dignitaries and a recipient of hard-won awards.

My Journey

By the time I graduated from Brighton University, the UK had slumped into another recession and I joined the mass exodus — leaving for work wherever work could be found. At the time it felt like a simple, painful, pragmatic necessity. Little did I know it would become a decades-long global adventure that would eventually plant me in Fort Collins, Colorado, where I now collaborate with media and arts personalities and organisations, making award-winning work across traditional and cutting-edge media.