🇵🇹 Portugal · Portuguese cuisine · b. 1979
The Lisbon chef leading the global revival of Portuguese cuisine.
José Avillez is a Lisbon-born chef who has done more than any other contemporary Portuguese chef to reposition Portuguese cuisine on the global stage. Trained at Adrià's elBulli, Alain Ducasse's Plaza Athénée and the celebrated Eleven in Lisbon, he opened Belcanto in Lisbon's Chiado district in 2012. Belcanto earned two Michelin stars — currently retained — and consistently appears on World's 50 Best lists.
His restaurant group operates more than a dozen establishments across Lisbon, Porto and Dubai, ranging from the casual Bairro do Avillez (a multi-restaurant complex) to fine-dining Café Lisboa and Cantinho do Avillez. His cooking takes the deeply traditional flavour profiles of Portuguese cuisine — bacalhau in many forms, leitão (suckling pig), pastéis de nata, alheira sausage — and treats them with modernist technique without abandoning their identity.
He is also a prolific TV presenter and cookbook author in Portugal.
Portuguese cuisine, modernised but unbetrayed. Avillez argues that Portuguese cooking — for centuries undersold internationally as 'just like Spanish but cheaper' — has its own profound identity rooted in Atlantic seafood, Iberian pork traditions and the legacy of the Age of Discoveries (which brought peppers, cinnamon, tomatoes and other now-essential ingredients into the cuisine). His menus celebrate that distinct identity.
Two Michelin stars; modern Portuguese fine dining.
His multi-restaurant complex including a tavern, a deli and a fine-dining room.
Casual Portuguese restaurant chain.
Original recipes we created as homages to José's cooking style and signature dishes. Not direct reproductions of any copyrighted material — these are our interpretations of the traditionsJosé has worked with throughout their career.
These recipes from our database reflect the portuguese cooking tradition that José works in. They are not direct reproductions of José's copyrighted recipes, but traditional dishes inspired by the same culinary heritage.
Stages at elBulli under Ferran Adrià — a defining culinary experience.
Works under Alain Ducasse at Plaza Athénée in Paris.
Becomes head chef at Tavares Rico, one of Lisbon's oldest restaurants; earns it a Michelin star — youngest Portuguese chef to do so at the time.
Opens Belcanto in Lisbon's Chiado; receives a Michelin star the same year.
Belcanto earns its second Michelin star.
Opens Bairro do Avillez, his multi-restaurant complex in Chiado.
Expands internationally with Tasca by José Avillez in Dubai.
Belcanto is José Avillez's flagship restaurant in Lisbon's Chiado district. Opened 2012, it earned its first Michelin star in 2012, its second in 2014, and has retained both. It consistently appears in the World's 50 Best Restaurants and is widely regarded as the standard-bearer of modern Portuguese fine dining.
Avillez trained at restaurants across Portugal and abroad: Eleven in Lisbon under Joachim Koerper, elBulli in Catalonia under Ferran Adrià, and Alain Ducasse's Plaza Athénée in Paris. The combination of modernist Catalan technique and classical French rigour underpins everything he does at Belcanto.
Bairro do Avillez is Avillez's multi-concept complex on Rua Nova da Trindade in Lisbon. It houses a casual tavern (Taberna), a delicatessen and grocery (Mercearia), a fine-dining tasting-menu room (Páteo) and a cabaret/dinner-theatre space (Beco) under a single roof — a unique format combining several Portuguese dining traditions in one address.
Avillez treats bacalhau (salt cod) — Portugal's most iconic ingredient — with modernist technique at Belcanto: deconstructions of bacalhau à brás, low-temperature confit preparations, foams and gels that highlight the flavour rather than the texture, and tasting-menu reinterpretations of classical recipes like bacalhau com natas. His goal is to honour the depth of the tradition while moving its presentation forward.
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