José Avillez


José de Avillez Burnay Ereira, known as José Avillez, is a Portuguese chef and restaurateur. He is one of the most renowned Portuguese chefs. In the beginning of 2012, José Avillez opened the fully renovated winning a Michelin star that same year. In 2014, Belcanto earned its second Michelin star and in 2019 was considered one of the 50 best restaurants in the world by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Currently, he has several restaurants in Portugal, in Lisbon and Porto, and also in Dubai. His cooking style, contemporary and Portuguese-inspired, has earned him several national and international accolades, including 2015's “Chef of the Year” by WINE magazine.

Family

Son of José Burnay Nunes Ereira, great-great-grandson of the 1st Count of Burnay, and of his wife, Maria de Fátima Miranda de Avillez. Brother of Teresa de Avillez Burnay Ereira. He is married to Sofia Melo de Castro Ulrich, daughter of Fernando Ulrich.

Career

José Avillez graduated in Business Communication at Instituto Superior de Comunicação Empresarial, with a thesis on the image and identity of Portuguese gastronomy. He began his career at Fortaleza do Guincho restaurant, in Cascais. He worked with José Bento dos Santos, Portugal’s most eminent gastronome, at Quinta do Monte d'Oiro, and took private study lessons with , the “mother” of Portuguese traditional cooking. After that, he interned in France, with Alain Ducasse and Éric Fréchon. In 2006, he interned in El Bulli and was part of its Creativity Department. That period with Ferran Adrià was a career-changing moment.
In 2005, as the result of his work and of a presentation dinner which he prepared at Hotel Bristol in Paris, he was named "Chef d'Avenir", by the International Academy of Gastronomy, a group of more than 40 representatives of countries from all over the world.
From 2008 to 2011, he was Restaurante Tavares' executive chef, and in 2009 he won his first Michelin star.

Restaurants

In September 2011 he opened the restaurant , in Chiado, Lisbon.
In January 2012 he inaugurated the restaurant , a Portuguese haute cuisine restaurant. During that same year, he accompanied Anthony Bourdain on his visit to film "No Reservations" in Lisbon.
In March 2013 he opened . In that same year, in September, he inaugurated in Largo de São Carlos.
In March 2014 he opened the bar and restaurant , in Teatro São Luiz, in Lisbon. In September of that same year, he inaugurated another , this time in Porto.
In August 2016 he opened , in Chiado, Lisbon, with different concepts: Mercearia, Taberna and Páteo.
In March 2017 he opened , in Bairro do Avillez, in Chiado, offering a dinner-and-a-show.
In July 2017 he opened , in Bairro do Avillez, where he presents Peruvian cuisine by the hand of his good friend and world-renowned Peruvian chef, Diego Muñoz.
In December 2017, accepting El Corte Inglés Lisboa's challenge, he developed three different concepts for the Gourmet Experience: , with Portuguese traditional flavours, , a vegetarian carnivore, and , with Mexican flavours, in a partnership with chef Roberto Ruiz.
In May 2018, on the date of 1998's Lisbon World Exposition anniversary, he opens in Parque das Nações.
In July 2018 he inaugurates in the city of Porto.
In September 2018 Cantina Peruana moves from to rua de São Paulo, Lisbon.
In March 2019 he opens the Portuguese-Asian restaurant , in Chiado, Lisbon, a partnership with Argentinian chef Estanislao Carenzo.
Still in March 2019, he inaugurates his first international restaurant project, , at the 5 star hotel Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, in Dubai.
In May 2019, after its success in Chiado, Parque das Nações and Porto, opens in Cascais.
In January 2020, in co-authorship with Ana Moura and António Zambujo, José Avillez opens , offering a Portuguese-inspired menu followed by a musical performance.

Accolades

2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
José Avillez hosted the television show “”, which aired on SIC Mulher channel. Previously, he hosted three seasons of the show “,” that also aired on SIC Mulher.
From 2014 to 2016, he hosted a morning radio show in “Manhãs da Rádio Comercial” entitled “”, where he suggested recipes, shared cooking tips and talked about gastronomy-related fun facts.
He’s a frequent guest on television and radio shows, and he’s the author of a weekly recipe for Revista E, a magazine that’s part of Expresso newspaper.
In 2019 José Avillez is one of the Masters in the cooking competition "Mestre do Sabor", by TV Globo Brazil.

Books

In 2006 José Avillez launched his first book , one of the bestselling books in Portugal that year, with over 15 000 copies sold, also published in Brazil.
In 2011 he published , a multilingual edition that gathers typical Portuguese appetizers. That same year, he contributed for the book A Boy After the Sea 2, by Kevin Snook, alongside Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller, and Daniel Boulu.
In 2013 José Avillez went back to writing with , a bilingual edition, a book in which he shares some of the most successful recipes of this restaurant.
In 2015 he published the book along with Expresso newspaper.
In 2016 he published the book , a bilingual edition, which compiles the recipes featured on the TV show.
Besides his own books, José Avillez also contributed for several other publications, such as the book COCO, by chef Ferran Adrià, or Where Chef’s Eat, by food critic Joe Warwick.