Popularly known as the "ambassador of Portuguese cuisine", chef José Avillez has made the arduous journey from chef to restaurateur training only in the kitchens of restaurants.
"I've always loved to cook but I never thought of cooking as being my possible profession. If you imagine 20 years ago, being a chef wasn't something, at least in Portugal, to be proud of. It was a career for people that didn't really know what to do in life. I always thought that my food passion would be a hobby but then I started to cook more and more, and started doing wine tasting courses and one day, when I was in the third year of my business communications degree, I decided to become a professional chef. Within three months of that decision, I started an internship."
From the kitchens of Portuguese restaurants, with a lot of hard work and immense talent, chef Avillez is now owner of 18 restaurants, with three more opening this year. And the crowning glory of his empire is Belcanto, the first restaurant in Lisbon to earn two Michelin stars.
José Avillez. Photos courtesy of The Anantara Siam Bangkok
"What I really like is to cook for people and my main goal is to give the people who sit at our tables a good experience. That is what defines my cuisine and is my philosophy. If you do something that diners really like, they will always have some emotion about it. Some could be from their childhood, a taste of what they've already had, some could be from a meal that they've had with someone they like, some could be because they are having such a good experience while eating my food. That creates a joyful memory for them," says chef Avillez.
Each of his 18 restaurants offers something different and at Belcanto there are a lot of guidelines that are contemporary Portuguese. The cuisine tells the history of Portugal but, as chef Avillez says: "I suffer a lot if the guests are not happy. I have my convictions and I will not serve dishes guests wouldn't like, but my food is more for them and less for me. It's really very hard to do something when you don't think about your guests."
Chef Avillez earned his first Michelin star in the first eight months of being executive chef at Tavares in Lisbon in 2009.
"My Michelin star at Tavares was special because it was my first and it is very difficult to earn a Michelin star. However, there is a big difference between winning a Michelin star and a gold medal at the Olympics. The gold medal you have forever, no one takes it away. The Michelin star, on the other hand, you need to work harder to retain it. Everything that we were able to achieve brings more and more responsibility. It is very good, but the other part is that it brings more work, more responsibility and eyes are always on you. Sometimes it's tough. I don't think the stars are most important but they are important. I have 18 restaurants but only one has two stars [Belcanto] and that helps promote the others."
More generally, the stars, chef Avillez says, also help the image of Portuguese cuisine and the country's economy. Though they haven't changed him as a man, he strives harder to maintain the two and earn the third.
Keeping track of 18 restaurants is no easy feat, but chef Avillez says he has a great team, a lot of procedures and many levels of "reporting" to keep the quality of each one in check.
"I used to say we have achieved 100 times more than we imagined. When I started cooking 17 years ago, I used to go to a small restaurant and I thought this is what I want. But I have achieved so much more -- with hard work, a bit of luck and I managed to get the timing right."
The chef says that Portuguese cuisine has a lot of identity, despite Portugal being a small country. The different food regions bring the best seafood from the areas along the coast and great meat from the landlocked areas.
"What Portugal misses the most is marketing. Most of the Iberian pork is bred in Portugal. We have some of the best wines in the world for quality and price, but the Portuguese are only known for Port. Maybe it is difficult for us to promote ourselves because we are only 10 million people in a country near Spain, which is much bigger. Even things from Brazil that are Portuguese or completely influenced by Portugal people think are Brazilian first, then Portuguese."
The Portuguese were the first Western power world to arrive in Japan in 1543.
"We took tempura to Japan and we taught them how to make castella, the Japanese sponge cake ['kasutera']. There are 90 words in our dictionary that are almost the same as in Japanese. Our word for someone who is sleazy is 'sakana', which is the same word for fish in Japan, because we have round eyes like fish. I am always inspired by history. I tend to think that what I do now is what I have discovered mixed with what has been done in the past.
"The Portuguese, too, were one of the first from the West to arrive in Thailand in 1511. We brought the foy tong or the egg threads dessert to Thailand. Even though many places were not colonies, we were there for 260 to 270 years and took our food to them and took some of theirs with us. In Macau, there are a lot of Portuguese dishes that are unrecognisable and completely different," chef Avillez says.
"The most important feeling is that I can continue to search for such dishes because tradition is also evolution. Even traditional Portuguese cuisine has evolved in the last 300-400 years. We didn't eat tomatoes, potatoes and peppers -- a lot of things that are now a staple in our diet. Scientists say in the next 80 years, evolution will be as fast the last 300 years, so many things to come."
Mandarine. The Anantara Siam Bangkok
Sea bass with smoked avocado pistachio oil, lime zest and dashi. The Anantara Siam Bangkok
