A life of sacrifice is the one of Jose Avillez: the celebrated chef of the Portuguese gastronomic scene, born in Cascais, near Lisbon, tells his story. Despite the flood of criticism and allegations about his personal vision of cuisine over the years, to this day he coordinates an empire, consisting of 31 restaurants, 14 of which are his own.
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If you work you get stones thrown at you, you do nothing and you get stones thrown at you...and the day you want to defend yourself, you will see that only stones in your face you will get. These could be the right lines to describe the career of José Avillez, the Cascais chef and ambassador of Portuguese cuisine in the world. Although he now runs 31 restaurants, 14 of which he owns, and boasts no less than four Michelin stars - two at Belcanto, one at Encanto both in Lisbon and another at Tasca in Dubai - when he began putting forward his vision of Portuguese gastronomy there were many who accused him of misrepresenting traditional cuisine.
"In my early days, I received threatening letters. Being the target of criticism or threats can be very discouraging for a chef, especially at the early stages of a career. However, after a few months of worrying, I realized that I would never be able to please everyone, especially those people who didn't even come to the restaurant and based their reviews on photographs and names of dishes. They seemed to be offended by my creativity, the new and the unknown, thinking that it would destroy traditional Portuguese cuisine. I decided to use these challenges as motivation to move forward and assert my culinary identity, but, truth be told, many times those letters appeared in my dreams and in the most difficult moments. However, it was an opportunity to reaffirm my commitment to innovation and creativity in gastronomy, while respecting, however, tradition. I always knew that what I was doing, in fact, not only did not destroy traditional cuisine, but rather promoted and consolidated it,", he told El Paìs.
Growing up on a farm in Cascais, from an early age, José was fascinated by cooking and spent many of his afternoons next to Laura, the lady who helped around the house and prepared meals, like a grandmother to him. Although this world enchanted him and as a child he delighted in making cakes to sell-the entrepreneurial spirit was already clear-he thought cooking was just a hobby. He studied, therefore, art and then undertook studies in marketing and communications, but in his twenties, when he was about to graduate, he decided to do an internship at a French chef's restaurant in Cascais.
“There I found out that cooking was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life”. The real revolution in Avillez's career and cooking, however, came through meeting Adrià. "I was at El Bulli in 2007. Being with Ferran and his team changed my life. He taught me to see creativity, imagination, not to be afraid to do something new. French cooking had a lot of rules, while Spanish cooking was like destroying everything and starting over. That was very important and it changed my life." Avillez took the air of revolution breathed at El Bulli to his native Portugal and then to the world (Macau and Dubai) to celebrate and sublimate the cuisine of his origins.
"I had never dreamt of being able to build something like what I built. When you start climbing a ladder and you're at the top you always start to see a little further. My dream has always been to open a small restaurant near my home in Cascais with 20 seats and a creative menu. I had never thought about Michelin stars, nor about being on the list of The World's 50 Best Restaurants (in this edition it is in 31st place). My dreams have been upgraded. If you're building and things are going well, you always want more, even though so many things didn't go well and I had to adapt. Some people might think mine is an empire, others might think it is the beginning. I feel it is the beginning, but the future is not opening more restaurants. I feel young and have a lot to accomplish. He never thought of doing what Ferran did, because those revolutions are done by one person every hundred years. There were two major movements in the kitchen, nouvelle cuisine and Ferran and the other people who followed him. My job is to cook for my diners, not so much to change the course of Portuguese cuisine, or create situations that create controversy. I am not as brave as Andoni Luis Aduriz , who expresses himself through pure artistic and conceptual expression and who also changed the way of looking at cooking. I have never been able to create anything other than people's enjoyment. I always thought about the customer,", he explains.
This success is the result of talent, but also of total dedication and hard work, however, has forced Avillez to make many hard sacrifices, primarily time devoted to his loved ones. "That of the chef is a very hard life, although today things have changed a bit. For many years chefs worked 18 hours a day for six or seven days a week. One of my two sons when he was four years old used to say that I was his brother's father; I asked him why he said that and I realized it was because he didn't know me. I would leave at seven in the morning and come back at one, when he was always asleep. It was as if a knife had pierced my chest. It is not an easy life to reconcile with family, but it is my passion. Now my son is 13, and during the pandemic he told me that those months were very important because he really got to know me. I have a close family that is very supportive. One of the main difficulties of catering is that while your family and friends are having fun, you are working. People, rightly, now think more about having a personal life. I regret not saying no to some projects and putting family commitments on the agenda as if they were the most important in my life. They are the most important to me, but in the past I thought I “had to” stay at the restaurant or be with a client or a journalist. Just today I said no to a project. I am learning, “ he trusts.
