Metaphors around the table, by Amuse Bouche

In recent years, Portuguese cuisine has grown, recognised and transformed itself. It has become mature and internationalised. Whilst we have not one, not two, not three, but dozens of awarded and cross-border recognized chefs, each year new talents and innovative and ambitious projects emerge all over the country.

Today, we speak fearlessly of a new movement from Portuguese cuisine. A movement inspired by the matrix of classic cuisine – recovering products, techniques and flavours from traditional cuisine – but which is breaking the rules in order to deliver something new. Cuisine is universal and speaks all languages, thus proving to be a privileged vehicle for all messages when we really want to talk seriously. We talk about sustainability, identity and innovation. But, also, about development, the local economy and culinary tourism. We talk about social impact and culture.

We’re starving for ideas and metaphors, not just deliciously prepared ingredients. We are ready and willing to think about cuisine. Leaving our comfort zone has never been so rewarding, especially when we realise that, not only in big urban centres, but now also from north to south of Portugal, irreverent and immediately ‘risky’ projects are popping up, thus challenging us to new flavours and experiences, which promote local products and producers, and a whole ‘small’ industry, which is gaining consistency and depth.

And while there is a growing recognition of this new path of chefs and restaurants by an increasingly wide and receptive public, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to consolidate our culinary culture. But that is precisely what is so stimulating. We have a virtually blank page on which to dream and create, a whole world of possibilities to explore. Cuisine has always been one of the strongest expressions of a people’s culture and identity, and one of the most tangible factors towards its recognition and cohesion. On the other hand, within this process, we acknowledge the imperative need to protect traditional cuisine, which in too many cases has been trampled underfoot by the vortex of tourist growth in recent years.

This inventive flow, which emphasises the potential of national cuisine and its ability to project itself to the world, takes place not only across national and international reference restaurants, but also across ‘laboratories’ of independent cuisine, where dogmas and prejudices are challenged, in order to create and innovate. Without table metaphors, there are no ideas, and Portuguese cuisine is boiling with creativity.