“Voraz”: Accessible Signature Cuisine in the Barreiro Market
With Voraz, Mercado 1.º de Maio in Barreiro has risen to the top of the national gastronomic scene to ask: what if Michelin cuisine offered prices fair to our wallets?
Neither Michelin nor haute cuisine — don’t talk to Bruno Xavier or Tiago Santos about fine dining:what they want is to create author cuisine at prices that are fair to the wallet. Humility suits them well — almost as well as the name of the restaurant they opened at Mercado 1º de Maio in Barreiro: Voraz.
“Voraz is a word that speaks for itself,” says Xavier (or Chef Bruno Xavier, as he is called by those who haven’t yet sat at the industrial yet intimate counter where Voraz welcomes its guests). “We chose it because it reflects our desire to do more, to launch a different project here in Barreiro, where we feel there is underutilization of many talents and many local products.”
Tiago Santos, the other half of the duo (with roots in Margem Sul), explains how this materializes: “We work with the utmost seasonality and locality without any restrictions on our creativity.”
And the ideas, he says, “come in the most outrageous ways.” One of the most popular dishes at Voraz’s counter, the suckling pig, has an interesting story: “Our vegetable partner is Courela dos Pegos. One day I went there and realized João feeds the sow, Ameixa, with leftover produce from organic markets. I also realized I get mesmerized watching a pig eat, so I decided to feed her too, and at some point I was throwing her purple sweet potato, yellow sweet potato… and I thought, ‘Why not make a dish from what the pig is eating?’ Then, together, we thought we should really get creative with plating, using a sort of Jackson Pollock technique where we get the customer to ‘splash’ the meat with colors.”
On the menu, “which is always changing,” there is space for those who don’t eat meat, in the section titled “to devour” (there’s another called “to share”). Anyone who tries the beet Wellington, made with organic beetroot, roasted vegetable demi-glace, sautéed mushrooms, truffled mashed potatoes, and halophyte plants from the Tagus (€16), certainly won’t miss animal protein. For those who don’t give up meat, try the curry-braised beef tongue (a starter or sharing dish for €9) or the Portuguese-style stewed veal in Provençal tomato sauce (for one, €17).
In the dessert section, one that respects the new wave of not overdoing sweetness: Algarve orange roll cake with almond sorbet and its crispy wafers, carrot gel and citrus gummy (€6), or, for those who like to live life on the edge of glucose, the Abade de Priscos pudding with smoked ham, pineapple sorbet, pineapple chutney, vanilla biscuit, and crispy bacon (€8).
At the counter, however, it’s not just starters, main courses, and desserts being served. “It’s almost like a theatre. Some nights there’s stand-up comedy, other nights a drama play, or monologue nights,” explains Tiago. So, does that mean the chefs explain every dish to every customer? No. But if there’s interest, there’s a story to tell: “There isn’t a single dish on our menu that isn’t intellectually scrutinized. We don’t put a dish on the menu just because it tastes good. There’s always a story and a journey behind it.”
In this exchange—where the customer asks a question and gets an answer—there are no mysteries. These chefs are also in this to make friends.
“We came to Barreiro because the region itself needed something different; and there was a personal need, for both me and Tiago, to leave other places where we couldn’t put our identity on the plate.”
For that, he continues, “we wanted to open something small, but that was ours, something cozy, a place where people feel like they’re at a friend’s home who’s cooking, who opens the oven, talks to us, asks about our tastes, and with a bit of luck, gets it just right.” The result — is what they do fine dining? “No, but it’s fun dining.”
