Voraz: the wisdom of “Michelin food” in the heart of Barreiro Market
Born from the dream of two chefs with roots in the South Bank, Voraz has found its home in the heart of Mercado do Barreiro. We celebrate local products while taking on the challenge of breaking the myth that contemporary cuisine is only for privileged tastes and wallets.
The sharp knife glides effortlessly, trimming the excess fat from a tender cut of meat, then salted and seasoned before landing in the sizzling pot. From there comes the unmistakable sound of food searing, a shhhhhhhhh! that sparks the appetite, followed by the aroma filling the air, already teasing the taste buds of Barreiro.
The magic of great gastronomy, usually hidden behind kitchen walls, unfolds here with no secrets, right before the eyes of our guests. And that’s just one ingredient in the recipe of the new resident at Mercado do Barreiro: a restaurant with open doors and an open heart for everyone who can’t resist the pleasure of the table and who gives in, without hesitation, to a truly… voracious appetite.
A funcionar desde o início de abril, o restaurante Voraz It’s bold in every sense – especially in taste – bringing contemporary cuisine across the river from Lisbon to the South Bank, determined to melt away the myth that good gastronomy is only for privileged tastes and wallets.
"I’ve always wanted to demystify contemporary cuisine, and Barreiro appeared as a great opportunity to show that it’s possible to find Michelin-star-worthy food right in the middle of the market, with the same simplicity as a trip to the butcher," explains chef Tiago Santos.
A duo of chefs with roots in the South Coast
At 36, Tiago knows Michelin-star cuisine, expertise gained while sharing the kitchen with one of Portugal’s starred chefs, Rui Silvestre, at the former Quorum in Chiado. This experience is now at the service of Barreiro locals, although the first months have already shown that the clientele reaches far beyond the town’s limits.
"We’ve already served groups from Cascais, tourists from Lisbon arriving by boat, and young surfers recharging their energy after tackling the waves in Setúbal, all drawn by curiosity," lists Bruno Xavier Marques, Xavi, 28, Tiago’s young partner at Voraz.
Tiago is a ‘boatman’ from the coastal village of Sarilhos Pequenos, while Xavi is a ‘highlander’ from Quinta do Anjo, near Palmela. It’s a symbiosis of coastal and countryside experiences, shaping a dynamic menu that aims to renew itself week by week, following the seasons.
And to serve contemporary cuisine that’s 100 percent made in Barreiro.
The hidden gems of Barreiro on your plate
Above all, Tiago is an enthusiast. He knows the intricacies of the palate, not just in taste but also in rhetoric. With the same skill he wields a knife, the chef slices words to craft the recipe behind Voraz’s kitchen and menu.
"We don’t do labels here, whether Portuguese or international cuisine. The goal is to create food from scratch, respecting the seasons and focusing on what the land gives us," he explains.
"The respect for the ways of the Earth comes from lessons learned during his undergraduate and master’s studies in Geography, before life’s detours took Tiago to other places, first at the Estoril School of Hospitality and Tourism, and later to the United States."
"But the concept remains. Geography is a holistic discipline, also geopolitical, attentive to the relationship between humans, territory, and cultures, in that cacophony that shapes the world," explains the former geographer.
Voraz’s geogastronomy comes to life right from the menu creation, which is renewed weekly.
"Every Tuesday, we go shopping at the local market in Barreiro, Mercado Levante. And based on what we find there, we put together the week’s menu", says the chef, born in Sarilhos Pequenos, unafraid of the big challenge he took on by proposing a fluid menu.
To illustrate the process, Tiago places half a dozen unusually shaped oranges on the table. “Orange-pomegranates. Extremely rare,” he presents, once again using the blade to split the fruit in half. Only then can you appreciate the true beauty of the rarity, with an internal structure in purplish tones, closer to pomegranates than oranges.
"They were being sold at the market by a single vendor, who explained they came from a tree on his property. I immediately pulled out my pocket knife and opened one. I went crazy over it and bought all of the man’s orange-pomegranates. The menu hadn’t originally included any dishes with oranges, but we were led to improvise," he recounts.
That week, the lone vendor’s orange-pomegranate joined green apple pickles for the sauce of the Porco Baba Ganoush on the menu, which also featured a promising Arroz de Caldeirada, highlighted by the catch of the day with a gel made from peppers and halophytic plants from the nearby Tagus River.
The obsession – and perhaps no word is more fitting – with serving food that’s 100 percent made in Barreiro extends to other items on the menu, such as wine produced on the peninsula and spirits, from the brandies Vinica Velha and Bagaceira Nova to the muscat Horácio Simões, as well as Brejinho da Costa vodka and coffee liqueur.
"Contemporary cuisine isn’t about the type of product, but about the attitude toward it," teaches the geo-chef.
Ensuring people leave with a smile, no anesthesia needed
Xavi, Tiago’s partner, also knows the intricacies of the mouth, and again, not just in terms of taste. The 28-year-old chef actually started on the less pleasant side: he began his professional life with mirrors and a drill in hand, as a dentist. Today, however, he ensures people leave with a smile in a much more enjoyable way – and without anesthesia.
And he ensures it’s not just the customers’ smiles.
"I’m very happy now," says the former dentist, trained at the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the University of Lisbon, smiling as he speaks. A good student, he carried his parents’ hope in Quinta do Anjo of becoming the “family doctor,” but life had other plans, and the dentist ended up in the classrooms of the Lisbon School of Hospitality and Tourism.
A classroom also brought the two partners together.
"A close friend of mine was a student of Tiago’s at the Moita Professional Technical School. She knew me well and told me there was a teacher I had to meet. I took her advice and went to talk to Tiago. Luckily, I got an internship," he recalls.
"My luck, your misfortune," jokes the ever-humorous Tiago, keeping a close ear on the conversation.
The chef claims he immediately recognized the talent of the former dentist before him, but even so, or perhaps because of it, he didn’t make life easy for the intern. For three months – three whole months! – Xavi struggled with preparing a wild rabbit rice dish until he earned the approval of his then-boss.
In Xavi’s defense, it wasn’t just any rabbit rice, but again a dish prepared according to geogastronomy principles, respecting the region’s imperatives. As if that weren’t enough, there were the details, or “finer points,” of the métier, like caramelizing the rabbit bones, cooking the meat at low temperature, and shredding it until almost translucent.
"It was a dish that seemed very simple to the customer, but it took three hours to prepare," says Xavi. "There was always something missing, in the texture, in the salt, until one day I tasted it and was sure it was perfect. I showed Tiago and said just that: it’s perfect," the chef recalls.
In response, he heard the former master, and now partner, declare:
"It is, go ahead and serve!"
Behind the scenes of this Barreiro kitchen
This rigor in the pursuit of the perfect dish doesn’t affect the kitchen’s humor. The great advantage of Voraz’s open space layout is sharing the behind-the-scenes of the chefs’ craft, like watching the pre-game in the locker room of your favorite team while waiting for the ball to start rolling—or, in this case, the dish to be served.
"One of the best things about going to the market is that face-to-face contact between vendors and customers. We decided to keep that feature at Voraz, with an open kitchen," explains Tiago.
To ensure the final result matched their vision, the two chefs swapped kitchen tools for construction ones and got their hands on… mortar. For three months, Tiago and Xavi hammered walls, cut wires, screwed in frames, installed appliances, and fixed the light spots until the final outcome was achieved.
Voraz occupies three stalls in Mercado do Barreiro, totaling 40 square meters. There are 40 seats, 12 of them at the counter overlooking the modern kitchen, a sort of box seat with the company of the chefs during the ballet of dish preparation, carried by the aroma of the food being made.
Opening up the secrets of the kitchen doesn’t worry the chefs. On the contrary.
"The recipes will be shared with the people of Barreiro. All are recorded by the chefs in notebooks to be handed over to the City Council at the end of the year, with the commitment to publish them in a book," says the eternal teacher, holding the notebook of one of his "students."
The idea is that by sharing the preparation of recipes using local ingredients, they highlight local production and cultivation, preventing Barreiro gems like the orange-pomegranate from disappearing and the “extinction of products,” Tiago emphasizes.
So, a contemporary cuisine with a public purpose, at accessible prices, in the heart of Mercado do Barreiro. More than an excuse, it’s the recipe for yet another boat trip along the Tagus.
