It is on the sloping hill of Graça, one of the most typical neighborhoods in Lisbon, that we find PLANO, a restaurant recommended by the Michelin Guide, a Chaîne des Rôtisseurs member and winner of the “Revelation Restaurant 2020” Award by Boa Cama Boa Mesa. Open in August 2019, where once worked an old 19th century farm, this is the first solo restaurant of chef Vítor Adão.

Born and raised in a small village of Chaves, in the heart of Trás-os-Montes, Adão signs a project with roots growing firmly in Lisbon and heart (as well as the mouth) pointed home, to the north. It is a sentimental geography exercise, which is practiced, daily, at these tables. The result of a life lived between the small village where he was born and grown – and to where he always returns whenever it’s possible – and the many hours spent in the kitchens of the fine dining restaurants where he traced most of his professional route. It is the reflex of the cook who as a child was a shepherd, passionate about the land and the territory, forever dazzled by the immensity of the landscape and the strength of nature, relentless in the quest for the most genuine product, by the knowledge that survives, by the hands that feed. A search that is not limited to sporadic contacts – is a quest of who accompanies the projects closely, of one who puts his hands on earth, who knows the whims, wills, and difficulties of a life dedicated to producing (as the farm where he grew up is still the site from where most of the potatoes that are consumed in PLANO come from). It is the work of someone who knows each producer by name, choosing each one to best reflect the essence of Trás-os-Montes, his roots.

It is Adão’s very own region of Trás-os-Montes that is tasted, here, in all its dimension and wonder, in all its strength and temperament. A love letter to his origins thought to share with a full mouth, respecting what comes from the past without, however, fearing moving forward, with contemporaneity, grace and elegance.