Full speed ahead for culinary diversity

His mother soon noticed his passion for food and for cooking: when Avillez was just nine years old, he and his sister regularly baked cakes and sold them at school. But it was only later, when he undertook an internship in the kitchen of Antoine Westermann at the age of 20 that he realised he had found his dream job. And though his parents were anything but enthusiastic at first, his unwavering ambition and strong will ultimately paid off.

Avillez trained in numerous countries, learning how to craft their special cuisines, but it was and always will be his native Portugal that inspires his dishes. He takes inspiration from its diverse regions, the sea and its ever-developing urban culture. 

Avillez is virtually omnipresent in Portugal, thanks largely to his seven restaurants, four cookery books, TV programme and daily cooking tips on the radio. In 2012, he opened Belcanto – Lisbon’s first restaurant to be awarded two Michelin stars and named amongst the 100 best restaurants in the world in 2016. Enormous wood panels, plush leather seats and clean lines provide diners with the setting for a journey through Portuguese cuisine, which simply asks them to sit back and enjoy a culinary experience for all the senses.

José Avillez and his team at Belcanto see haute cuisine as a special medium for self-expression. Every menu that they put together is a story made up of several chapters, arranged in a surprising, enticing and aesthetically stunning sequence. Each of these chapters is bursting with their love for Portugal and delight in combining classic and modern cuisine.

Those who wish to be taken on a culinary adventure by José Avillez are in luck, as they won’t have long to wait: he will be navigating his way to the kitchen of Restaurant Ikarus in Salzburg’s Hangar-7 in April 2017.