Portuguese chef Vasco Coelho Santos has achieved a lot in his culinary career. At 35, he has four restaurants, a fishmongers and a bakery. He was also named Chef of the Year 2023 by Boa Cama Boa Mesa, Portugal's most prestigious culinary guide.
The guide also awarded his Michelin-starred and signature restaurant, Euskalduna Studio, the Golden Fork, which signifies it as one of the best places to eat in Portugal.
"Since I travelled so much during my career, my food is global, but it uses Portuguese ingredients. That's my focus… local ingredients. I believe I have to protect Portuguese suppliers and small producers, but the way I cook isn't Portuguese or traditional. I use techniques from the all over the world," says chef Santos.
The word Euskalduna refers to a Basque person. "Though in English it is pronounced with a B, in Spanish you would say it with a V. If you go to San Sebastian or Bilbao you will see it spelt with a V, much like my name Vasco. So it's a pun in Basque and my name. I worked in Arzak and Mugaritz in Spain for a year and since 2010, I had the idea of having a Basque name for my restaurant because of this thing with my name. It means my studio," he explains.
The restaurant, however, first started off with private dining. "After working at El Bulli, I had a few invitations to work abroad, but I decided to come back to Porto and focus on Portuguese traditions and my country. I worked for a Portuguese Michelin-starred restaurant in Porto for two years before I took a year's sabbatical. I wanted to create something based on my trips, the various cultures I had been exposed to and my work stints in all the restaurants.
"The way for me to do it was not to open a restaurant, but to start doing private dining. This would help me determine what my style of cooking was going to be. Since this also gave me time to travel, I began with a trip to India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore. I spent three months working in Singapore and Mexico for a month. The idea was to travel and to do two or three dinners a week, so I could practice and perfect my style."
Broccoli textures to invigorate the palate.
This is also when he decided to go to Japan for three months, along with his sous chef and two restaurant designers. "The idea was to go to Japan and be inspired by the food, the concept of eating at a counter and by the interiors, which would then be combined into designing Euskalduna."
However, this solitary dining experience didn't really translate to Portugal. "So at Euskalduna, we use the Portuguese mentality of receiving guests. It is imperative to note that we don't serve Japanese food, though everything may look Japanese. We only serve 18 customers, 10 of which sit at a counter. The idea was always to keep it small, a place with no waitresses, just a sommelier and chefs. It is only 60m² and despite being so popular, I don't want to expand it as it will not be the same.
"I will not be able to have conversations with my diners, some who travel for food and have a lot of knowledge. I love it because I can have discussions with them about restaurants, food and experiences from all over the world. It is fun.
"I prefer to have more places on the same street, rather than have more seats in the same place. I have restaurants with different concepts on the same street. There is Ogi by Euskalduna, which is a bakery and patisserie, a house for guests to stay and Peixaria by Euskalduna, a fish butchery, too."
Semea by Euskalduna is chef Santos' bistro that faces the river. Semea in the Basque language means son, while Ogi means bread. "Semea is a restaurant that I can see growing and it has grown to 60 seats," he says. Seixo by Vasco Coelho Santos is out of the city and showcases the Douro River and the old vineyards it is set in. It is "combining comfort and tradition with flavour and emotion", as chef Santos puts it.
His newest restaurant Kaigi, which combines Japanese and Portuguese cuisines, opened last year.
"Portugal was in Japan for 70 years in the 15th century and left behind many of its culinary techniques. Tempura is a Portuguese technique and at Kaigi this is what we focus on. It is an izakaya-style restaurant that serves a mix of different dishes and nigiri. It seats only 20 people at a counter," says the chef. This hasn't stopped chef Santos who is opening his fifth restaurant, which he describes as a "timeout market restaurant", which is inside a market.
"Quality in all my restaurants is controlled by having good teams and good chefs. In the last two years, we have invested a lot in back office people and the team that helps running the restaurants is getting stronger. This helps me be more present in kitchen operations and the creation of new dishes. That's our way to grow," emphasises chef Santos.
Duck and pumpkin.
Amberjack and plum.
