Good news and success stories. In Portugal, thanks to the 2011 crisis, everything has been rethought for the better (including catering). The story of chef José Avillez, his restaurants, and a lesson for the future – ours
PIGS was the most used acronym of 2011 to indicate countries in crisis due to the public deficit. Portugal had touched the default, but today, nine years later, everything has changed, so much that it seems unrecognizable. Italy narrowly escaped it, they took the crisis in full: it was a slap so strong as to awaken an entire people and see them reborn. Before Lisbon was introverted and melodramatic, abandoned and ramshackle, today it is a new city that is teeming with tourists, new citizens and where energy vibrates in the air. The Portuguese have reinvented themselves, but also tourists arrive in droves, start-ups have opened offices, expats have brought families here, English have moved on the run from Brexit. Pure Italian pensioners have chosen the beaches of Cascais for old age. With a new one crisis causes pandemic, the lesson of Portugal and the stories of its chefs must be looked at with a new attention.
Restart from Portuguese gastronomy
Just stroll through the streets of Lisbon, those of Chiado, the Fernando Pessoa neighborhood and other twentieth-century Portuguese intellectuals, theaters and more elegant shops. Ten years ago it was all a succession of abandoned shops and lowered shutters, today the streets are full of boutiques, shops, restaurants, one after the other, full. The adventure of celebrity has also started in Chiado chef José Avillez. Two Michelin stars at Belcanto restaurant and soul of one twenty rooms. In 10 years, those of the crisis (and also thanks to the crisis), he built a small empire, and managed to make Lisbon a world gastronomic capital.
Promoting Portuguese gastronomy and helping to make Portugal a gastronomic destination of excellence is not an easy goal, especially when you start your adventure as an entrepreneur in 2011, one of the worst years. "Nunca pens llegar hasta aquí", which translated like this: "I never thought I would get this far." This is thanks to a close-knit, passionate and enthusiastic team, a clear mission and an entrepreneurial spirit that has led him to go further, always. He never tires of thanking José Avillez.
José Avillez, 40 years old and 20 restaurants
Originally from Cascais, José grew up near the sea, then studied business communication at the university. It is under the guidance of the mother of traditional Portuguese gastronomy, Maria de Lurdes Modesto, who takes her first steps in the kitchen before going abroad and entering Ferran Adrià's El Bullí. No one has ever emerged unscathed, and Josè also returned home with a different way of seeing the kitchen and understanding the role of chef.
Today it has ten restaurants in Lisbon, Porto and Cascais, three gourmet spaces in Lisbon's El Corte Inglés, a restaurant in Dubai for a total of twenty venues (for now). Josè is 40 years old and to succeed in this he acted as a talent scout for young cooks and as a magnet for investors, managing to build a constellation of virtuous connections which, under his supervision and name, develop in openings; one way the other. Around him orbit dozens of collaborators who work in restaurants but above all creative minds and a team dedicated to the development of the many projects at stake, including TV programs, books, food and wine.
In the beginning it was not the starry
Usually in these cases, everything starts with the starred restaurant, but this is the story of Josè and things went differently. The first restaurant opened in 2011 has been Cantinho do Avillez, in Chiado (now also in Cascais, Porto and Parque das Nações), a modern trattoria with a programmatic definition: contemporary Portuguese cuisine influenced by trips abroad and by the childhood flavors of chef José Avillez. Fish soup as eaten in Cascais and fish tacos, typical battered and pregos beans, sandwich with steak and garlic sauce. Among the desserts, the orange roll, "just like when I was 10". Local raw materials of the highest quality blend with avocado tempura and you do not find yourself in a den of tourists, but to share the lunch break with the employees of the area.
Belcanto, the first 2-star hotel in the country
A year later Cantinho do Avillez was born Belcanto, the first two Michelin star restaurant in the country and in 42nd place in the prestigious ranking The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Born to say why Belcanto is an iconic place. Opened in 1958 in São Carlos square, near the São Carlos National Theater and the birthplace of the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, it has been a meeting point for Lisbon's elite for decades. Here today you experience Portuguese haute cuisine and you can live a gourmet experience made of very sophisticated dishes that tell the story, the flavors, the ingredients of a people. Creative forge, Belcanto was the engine of the Shuttle, the tangible demonstration that Portuguese cuisine had the legs to change and develop, to attract investments and decline in different formats.
What no one has ever done in Italy
No logic like "first line" and "chef's bistro", but a galaxy of formats ranging from the pizzeria to the Peruvian restaurant, in which José's hand acts as a guide and supervisor able to inspire, suggest, monitor, define every detail; because everything is well-kept, almost manic, to make the experience perfect. Meat, fish, Asian, cocktails … each place lives a life of its own.
The most impressive is the Bairro do Avillez, in Rua Nova da Trindade, always in Chiado. It literally means "neighborhood", because more than a restaurant, this is actually a project that unites different areas inspired by the best Portuguese flavors. Open every day, from midday to midnight, it includes one Mercearia where to buy selected typical products, the Taberna with generous portions of traditional cuisine, the Páteo most spectacular in the city specializing in fish and seafood e Beco, a "secret" space where to dine and drink cocktails during a cabaret show. In front, a few meters away, another room that hides a secret bar. Rei from China specializes in Asian soups, street food and Thai Bánh Mì by chef Estanis Carenzo, Argentine chef with a Japanese and Asian background. You cross the entrance and like in a speakeasy you find yourself immersed in another place reminiscent of a 1940s club in Shanghai, born from the collaboration of the two chefs. At the Casa dos Prazeres (literally, house of pleasure) we eat dishes and drink creations that celebrate the secular relationship between Portugal and Asia, which among the first sailed the seas to places like Singapore and Macau. As the menu reminds, Asia is the largest continent in the world, in fact it ranges from curries from Malaysia, rice paper rolls from Vietnam, ceviche from the Philippines, noodles and satay chicken from Indonesia and barbecued chicken Luang Prabang from Laos. Delicious Goa cassata, a Japanese sponge cake with layers of ice cream and dried fruit.
Canto, the latest born. To go back to singing
After the change of location of the starred restaurant, in 2019, the last of Avillez's projects was born in the windows alongside, in the historic place of Belcanto: I sing. A menu inspired by Portuguese cuisine and a live show with voice and music by Ana Moura and António Zambujo, for a place that brings the hands back to the city's history. José wanted to do it for a long time, to give back to the city something he had lost and the magic of the premises of the past: beautiful and ambitious. It is a bit as if in Milan Cracco reopened the Derby, so to speak, and built around it a galaxy of autonomous projects supported by different entrepreneurs. A vision? Certainly, but also an opportunity born from the economic incentives and the tax exemptions allowed by the Portuguese government, which have relieved the country of the abyss. Belcanto is back to singing, and in Lisbon not even the fado sings more than saudade, sadness and loneliness, but of love, of the future and of hope. We hope that the lesson will also serve Italy.
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