Palácio Tangará Names André Mendes Executive Chef Alongside Michelin-Starred Tangará Jean-Georges

Palácio Tangará named André Mendes executive chef in June 2026, putting the 36-year-old in charge of the hotel's kitchens, restaurants, and events program. Mendes brings sixteen years of experience across Michelin-starred restaurants and luxury hotels in Europe and Brazil, having started his career in the kitchens of D.O.M. and Dalva e Dito under Alex Atala before working alongside chefs including Sergi Arola and Quique Dacosta, and later joining the team at Eleven, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Lisbon.

His new responsibilities span Pateo do Palácio, the hotel's main restaurant, and oversight of Tangará Jean-Georges, the only hotel restaurant in São Paulo currently recognized with a Michelin star and the only restaurant in South America carrying chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's name. Managing both a signature chef collaboration and a broader in-house kitchen is a genuinely demanding remit, and Mendes's background across both fine dining and hotel-scale operations suggests the appointment was built around exactly that dual requirement.

Set within a converted 1940s mansion surrounded by seven acres of Atlantic Forest inside São Paulo's city limits, Palácio Tangará has always leaned on that unlikely combination of urban access and genuine greenery as much as its dining program. Adding a chef of Mendes's caliber to oversee both restaurants only strengthens the case for treating the hotel as a serious culinary destination within one of South America's most competitive dining cities.

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