Larau, do you know what it is? Alex Melo and Filipe Bilro, founding chefs of the eponymous restaurant in Estremoz, explain: “larau was a word used in olive picking in the upper Alentejo, which designated the burlap cloth for picking it.” With roots deep in Portuguese origins, the chefs create the concept of Larau, which revolves around sharing, seasonality, and local ingredients.
Ana Leão has a nomadic soul, and so does her kitchen. Born in Porto, the chef left early in search of the world. First, she moved to Spain where she worked, amongst other places, at El Bulli. Then she moved to Australia where she lived for quite a few years. Last year the pandemic brought her back to Portugal and Ana is now stationed in Vila Nova de Milfontes. The founder of the Colher Torta project, dedicated to pop up gastronomic events, simultaneously embraces a new challenge: the kitchen of Statera, at Hotel Selina, where she does what she loves the most: she handpicks the best ingredients, cooks them, and shares them with the world.
Alentejo cuisine with a taste of home, memories and tradition. In Porto Covo Ana Moura opens her first restaurant designed from scratch for this place where she too has roots. At Lamelas (surname of her maternal family, born in Porto Covo), the chef pays homage to the local cuisine, bringing her recognized creativity to the plate.
Memory, innovation, respect, and tradition are the four pillars of António Loureiro‘s restaurant A Cozinha. The chef from Guimarães set out on a remarkable journey that culminates in the achievement in 2018 of his first Michelin star. Its restaurant in the heart of Guimarães is “committed to projecting the identity of Portuguese cuisine by combining the Portuguese recipe with the creativity of the author‘s cuisine“. Another important award from A Cozinha is the Green Key international recognition for the environmental practices implemented. For the chef, “cooking is an act of kindness, a passion and an art when it provokes emotion. A trip that makes me and makes others happy.“
António Nobre, born and raised in Alentejo, is one of the figures of the region‘s gastronomy. A staunch defender of the local flavors and aromas and passionate about its magnificent products: from river fish to olive oil, meat, and bread. In addition to commanding the kitchen of the M‘AR De AR Hotels group, the award-winning chef is a confrere of the Confraria Gastronómica do Alentejo, author of cookbooks, and writes in various newspapers and websites about gastronomy.
With an extensive curriculum, where names such as Rota das Sedas, O Viajante, Taberna do Mercado or DOM, Bruno Caseiro is renowned for his unpretentious cuisine. In Comporta, the chef opened Cavalariça restaurant in 2017. It is such a reference in the region that, last year, the chef opened the doors to a homonymous restaurant in Cais do Sodré in Lisbon.
He is one of the talents of this new generation of Portuguese chefs who went through haute cuisine, national and international, to achieve his interpretation of regional cuisine, combining technique with flavors of memory and family history. At O Frade, he presents an Alentejo cuisine with more“ baggage ”of products and knowledge.
Born in Alentejo, the head chef of Basilii, Torre Palma’s restaurant, says that the secret to a great Alentejo dish is time. And it is with time, and also willpower, imagination, resilience and humbleness – the values he considers essential in a chef – that Filipe Ramalho has been making his way in the gastronomic world!
Filipe Rebocho and João Narigueta met in the kitchen of the L‘and Vineyards restaurant in Montemor-o-Novo. Their shared passion for genuine Portuguese cuisine led them to extensive research work in libraries and universities. They identified many common ingredients in the past and are now forgotten; thus, Híbrido was born. A restaurant willing to “renovate the gastronomic tradition in Évora“ focused on “sustainability, respect for the product and forgotten tradition“. The menu is based on ancient products and recipes approached in a modern way and showcases local and seasonal products.
Book a table, if you are in Évora or nearby!
This smile is not just for the picture – it‘s the trademark of chef Henrique Mouro. Bold and precise, the man in charge of Aperta restaurant in Campo Maior pays tribute not only to Alentejo’s gastronomy but also to the region‘s well-known hospitality.
Chef Hugo Bernardo found in Estremoz and The Folly Restaurant the perfect stage for his cuisine centered on local and seasonal products. The Folly Restaurant, a project which also houses an urban winery that produces premium wines, is known for reproducing some dishes from the Alentejo gastronomy in a more contemporary version.
If you watched Masterchef, you will remember the famous “chocolate flower” that left everyone gasping. Its author is the man in the picture: pastry chef Joaquim Sousa. Born in France, where he started his professional career, he arrived in Portugal in 2001 and worked at some of the leading hotel chains and Ladurée Paris in Lisbon. Today we can find him at The Oitavos Hotel, in Cascais, where he created the new dessert menu for the Ipsylon Restaurante & Bar. Creative and a perfectionist, Joaquim Sousa lives in search of the next big surprise.
An absolute reference in the Alentejo, Tombalobos is one of José Júlio Vintém’s life projects. A self-taught chef and compulsive researcher of practically forgotten products, he draws his inspiration from the gastronomic richness of the Alentejo to give free rein to his creation. At Tombalobos the kitchen honours seasonality, rurality and authenticity.
Leopoldo Calhau replaced the drawing board of the architecture studio with pots and pans. Deeply influenced by his family‘s Alentejo roots, the founder and beating heart of Taberna do Calhau, says that traditional recipes “are the main pillar of the cuisine we make and that‘s where we draw inspiration from“.
Tua Madre is an artisanal wine and appetizer Tasco with an Italian and Mediterranean influence that works with small Portuguese producers. A project made by four hands: those of Marisa Tiago and Francesco Angelo Ogliari. Marisa is in charge of the wine cellar. Francesco takes care of the kitchen. The duo invites you to spend a pleasant evening with drinks and snacks in the heart of Évora.
Michele Marques left the state of Rio de Janeiro to land in Portugal in 2005, and in 2010 discovered, during a trip to Italy, that cooking was her vocation. Three years later the dream came to life at Mercearia Gadanha, a reference in Estremoz, which combines under the same roof a wine shop, a grocery store and a restaurant, where the best Alentejo tradition is interpreted through Michele’s criativity, using deliciously modern techniques and presentation.
Ricardo Leite’s cuisine comes with memories from his family, his childhood and trips. The chef graduated in Computer Engineering, but he ditched the diploma to enroll at Cordon Blue in London. He recognizes that his professional career was strongly marked by the work he developed alongside chef Alexandre Silva, with whom he worked at Bica do Sapato, Loco, and Mercado da Ribeira. Two years ago, Ricardo left Lisbon and moved to Porto Covo where he opened Alma Nómada. This restaurant lives” in harmony with the will of nature. Respecting winds, tides, and equinoxes. Harvesting from the land what the sea does not give and fishing in the sea what the land does not produce”.
Chef Rodrigo Castelo does what, at first, seems impossible: please lovers of tradition and fanatics of modernity alike. Taberna Ó Balcão, the tavern he opened in 2013 in the center of Santarém, is (at the time) the highlight of a culinary career that started out of curiosity and instinct. Inspired by tradition, Taberna‘s contemporary cuisine approaches the best Ribatejo products with the eye and taste of those who know and respect them deeply.
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