Top chef killed in Brazil

A celebrated chef from Austria has been shot dead in Brazil.

Nicolas Dornaus, chef de cuisine at the five-star Grand Hyatt Hotel in Sao Paulo, was killed on Sunday night near Interlagos, Brazilian press reported yesterday (Mon).

The Austrian, who settled in Brazil in the 1970s, was riding a Yamaha motorcycle when he was approached by a gang of criminals at a junction. The attackers shot him in the back and sped off on his expensive bike, police announced. Dornaus succumbed to his injuries in a nearby clinic a few hours later. His brother Christian allegedly told investigators that he was a “very kind person with no enemies.”

His employer said in a statement: “The Grand Hyatt is providing all necessary support to the authorities who must establish the circumstances of this tragedy and their families (…) to whom the hotel expresses its most sincere condolences.”

Press in the South American country falsely reported that the victim was a Swiss citizen. A spokesman for the Austrian foreign ministry pointed out today that Dornaus was born in the Swiss city of Zurich but was Austrian. He was married to a Brazilian, according to Austrian newspaper reports. Papers in his homeland also claim that the couple have a young son.