Culinary writer, Irvina Lew, was so impressed with Portugal, which she first visited in 2016, that she has returned three times! This piece focuses on gastronomy in and near Porto; stay tuned for future articles in RealFoodTraveler.com about Irvina’s experiences at authentic eateries in food markets, cafes, and restaurants. Here, she shares the experiences of a gastronomic week during which she got to meet seven stellar chefs in Portugal.

Each November, Michelin awards its coveted stars to top chefs around the world. This past fall of 2018, five chefs earned the career-consequential stars in and near Porto, which is significant for the culturally- and gastronomically-sophisticated city (population, 250,000) located about three hours north of Lisbon. On my first visit, I lunched at Cantinho do Avillez, the, then, new outpost of two-star Michelin chef Jose Avillez, from Lisbon. Serendipitously, I had the chance to return for a week via TAP Air Portugal and dine at each of these five acclaimed restaurants, and two others with “star” chefs, in mid-December. During my week-long stay, I visited the outdoor holiday market with its individual stands and the Matosinhos Market, where I chatted with fishmongers; bought canned tuna in olive oil at the Conserveira Pinhais & Cia sardine factory, walked along the seafront walk in Matosinhos, where I met two old-timers repairing fishing nets by hand; spent an hour cruising the river on a FeelDouroboat tour, toured Taylor’s Port Wine House and had a spa treatment and swam indoors at Caudalie Vinothérapie® Spa at The Yeatman.

What follows are my recollections of quite-fabulous meals, though there’s minimal mention of all the wonderful paired wines, including port. Like many gastronomic restaurants, these five served multi-course tasting menus of between six and 12 courses: an amuse bouche, starters of seafood, fish, or vegetarian, entrees of game, poultry and/or meat and a pre-dessert, dessert, and an array of confisserie. (Much to my delight, each chef was amenable to substitutions because try though I do, I can’t eat squid and octopus!)

Consulting Executive Chef Ljubomir Stanisic, Six Senses Douro Valley

Six Senses Douro Valley is located within a classic riverfront manor, which had been extended to house-spacious accommodations, fabulous dining rooms, a wine bar, boutique, plus exercise and treatment rooms and an indoor pool. Beyond the outdoor pool and terraces, the estate includes vineyards and woodlands. On my first visit to the Douro, in 2016, I lunched, toured and had a massage here, and was beyond grateful to be able to return. The Consulting Executive Chef is Serbian-born Ljubomir Stanisic, who worked with major Portuguese culinary giants, including Vitor Sobral, the consulting chef for TAP Air Portugal. Chef Stanisic became a national television star, in 2011, as one of three judges of the first MasterChef Portugal. With Head Chef Luis Borlido, they promote key culinary values: healthy, organic (mostly from their own gardens), seasonal, local, nutritional, environmentally-sustainable, house-made, and absolutely delicious country house fare. The first night, I ordered the succulent roast chicken and was delighted when an entire golden bird arrived on a bed of straw. The following night, after succumbing to a made-to-measure, mini-pizza baked in the wood-fired oven, I accepted the Maitre d’hotel’s recommendation: a traditional Portuguese lamb shoulder, which arrived on a cart and was also sliced table-side. My wines of choice came from a nearby estate, Quinta Vale D. Maria, and were made by my friend’s husband, winemaker Cristiano Van Zeller: Vinha Da Francisca Douro Tinto 2015, Douro Tinto 2016, and Quinta Vale D. Maria Douro Tinto 2008.

Chef Ricardo Costa, The Yeatman

Dinner was prepared by Ricardo Costa, Porto’s Michelin two-star chef. I stayed at The Yeatman Hotel, which opened in 2016, and had dined at the gastronomic restaurant at the sprawling, multi-level, five-star, 109-room, urban resort hotel and was thrilled to meet the man who earned his first star about a year after The Yeatman Restaurant, in 2011; his second was announced in 2016. The spacious dining room, and indoor and outdoor pools and bar, all overlook the Porto cityscape – with its bridges and churches – from across the Douro River. Costa serves a 6 or 10 course tasting menu, sometimes repeating an ingredient in several different preparations. He is also a master at achieving fabulous textures, particularly the crunchy suckling pig skin and creamy, cheesy, onion foam (onion purée, chicken oysters, mushrooms and cheese). The wine list features selections from the hotel’s 27,000 bottle cellar and the largest collection of Portuguese wines, many produced by Taylor Fladgate, the company involved with the hotel’s ownership.

Chef Rui Paula, Casa de Chá da Boa Nova

Casa de Chá da Boa Nova, a striking, modernist icon perched on the rocky terrain overlooking the Atlantic is where Rui Paula won his first Michelin star in 2017.  The magical building was designed by internationally-renowned Architect Alvaro Siza (aka Siza Vieira), in 1963, and recreated, in 2014, specifically for the host of Portugal’s Master Chef (and chef/owner of DOC, in the Douro Valley and DOP, in Porto). Two tasting menus include a vegetarian option. Ours was a 12-course seafood menu that started with grilled toast (served on hot briquettes) served with pig fat, reminiscent of the chef’s childhood breakfast and continued: baby clams topped with teeny croutons on a butter, garlic and clam juice foam (made especially for me), mackerel tartare, a savory vegetarian éclair, a Thai prawn and a “Déjà vue,” a raspberry puree stuffed éclair. My kitchen visit included samples of “Azeitão” cheese and Burmester Tawny Port. Wow!

Pedro Lemos, Pedro Lemos

Porto foodies have been flocking through the narrow streets of Foz (a seafront neighborhood) to dine chez Pedro Lemos, since it opened in 2010. Chef retained his Michelin star in 2019, by continuing to create cuisine inspired by memories of his grandmothers: one who worked the fields in Bragança; another who sold fish at the Matosinhos markets. This simple and genuine heritage extolls the land (rabbit loin and roasted lamb) and sea (devil fish and octopus), to which he adds personal innovative techniques and sauces, about which he says: “The sauce; it’s in the brain and the heart.” From the homemade goat milk butter served with bread, it’s a unique gastronomic experience. Among the dishes, a citrusy shrimp ceviche, a tuna enoki with wasabi, a brioche and a rich foie gras creme brulé, beef carpaccio with a horse radish cream, an Atlantic fish called corvina (croaker), pear in many forms, and a Madeira wine.

Antonio Loureiro, A Cozinha by António Loureiro

Dinner at A Cozinha by António Loureiro is served in a renovated, private, two-story house in the historic center of his hometown, Guimaraes. The chef’s expertise updates regional rustic, traditional fare and serves it creatively. Loureiro, Portugal Chef of the Year 2014, who just earned his first Michelin star, incorporates experience with macrobiotic menus at a vegetarian restaurant, produce from his own urban garden and a commitment to sustainability and social responsibility, including education. In terms of his GREEN energy program, he claims: “You cannot manage what you cannot measure.” His dishes are works of art, often on unique tableware, that tell a personal story. I particularly enjoyed two hearty dishes: foie gras with a puree of quince and the loin of pork, with beetroot and teeny tiny onions, potatoes, mushrooms and delicate baby turnips.

Chef Tiago Bonito, Largo do Paco

When we arrived at Largo do Paco, the restaurant at Casa da Calcada in Amarante (a Relais & Chateaux affiliate outside Porto), I had no idea that it was Tiago Bonito (Portugal Chef of the Year, 2011) whose food my daughter, Jen, and I enjoyed so much at Lisboeta, at Pousada de Lisboa, (on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, our first day ever in Lisbon). We were so impressed that we ate three of our five dinners there. Bonito, who won his Michelin star in 2017, plays with fresh regional flavors, balances traditional (suckling pig) and contemporary (veal tartare tacos atop charcoal briquettes), simple and sophisticated. He serves art on a plate. His caviar jar is divided into wedges – tomato, egg, chive, red onion, cauliflower – and looks like a flower. But the piece de resistance is dessert: a golden sugar balloon, served with cinnamon ice cream and cotton candy. The balloon is filled with yellow egg cream, a reminder that the nuns who used egg whites to starch their habits found enticing uses for the yolks.

Chef Julien Montbabut, Le Monument

My daughter Jen and I met Hugo traveling by train from Lisbon to Porto, in 2016. On my last night in Porto, Hugo and his 11 year-old-daughter joined me at Le Monument, in the very new, five-star Le Monumental Palace, in central Porto. Chef Julien Montbabut, who earned his Michelin star chef at Le Restaurant, in Paris, trained at the prestigious Parisian cooking school, Ferrandi, and mastered his craft in illustrious restaurant kitchens. I especially appreciated that even his four-course tasting menu offers choices. “The fact that the customer can choose his dishes is, for me, the foundation of a restaurant,” he notes. I relished foie gras and steak and Le Grand Dessert de Joana, a circle of five small round dessert plates, each one displaying a flavor from sweet chocolate, to coffee, to fruit, to tart citrus, to sour, lemon. Perfection!

PS – Actually, if you count mid-air meals I enjoyed when I flew TAP Air Portugal, I also had the chance to experience meals developed by Michelin-starred chefs in flight. Aboard the overnight JFK-LIS flight, TAP’s Taste the Stars dinner featured roast duck, a dish created by Chef Rui Silvestre, whom I had met when he was chef at Bon Bon, in the Algarve, in April, 2017.

And a caveat: In Portugal, these fine-dining tasting menus are priced between $65-$170 Euro (plus wines and gratuities), about half the cost of similar meals, in most major cities. — Story and photos (except where noted) by Irvina Lew.