POP UP DINNER CHEF Filipe Carvalho

Chef Filipe Carvalho  

Executive Chef at Fifty Seconds by Martín Berasategui

As a child, he wanted to be a football player, in fact he dedicated 14 years of his life to the king of sports and roller hockey. From Aveiro, he keeps memories of his grandmother's restaurant 'Rodrigo', where his mother worked and where he spent long hours. Gastronomy has always been part of their days. He went to his uncle's pastry shop, where he learned the basics, which he still considers important today. He switched from sports to the Coimbra Hospitality School and it was thanks to the Jovem Talento da Gastronomia competition, in 2006, that he met chef Bóia. After two years in Rios, in Marina de Oeiras he is invited to open the Altis Belém, where he is responsible for Japanese cuisine. After a year and a half he goes to New York to the Winchester Country Club. He was 23 years old, it was a year where he grew up and learned a lot. The difficulty of adapting made him return to Portugal and he entered as commis (the only position available) at Fortaleza do Guincho, at the time headed by Vincent Farges. After a year he was already head chef and after two years Farges invited him to become junior sous-chef. Instead, he accepts the invitation to the same position, but at Vila Joya, alongside Dieter Koshina and Matteo Farrantino.

After a season, he accepts the invitation and goes to work with João Rodrigues for the Feitoria on the condition that he stays only one year. After that time, he moved to Barcelona to work with Paolo Casagrande at Lasarte de Martín Berasategui (now three stars), in Barcelona. After two months, he was invited to become executive chef at the Hotel Monument, in Barcelona. After three years, he decides it is time to return to Portugal. Martín Berasategui tells him that he is going to open a restaurant in Lisbon and that he wants him to be the executive chef. Filipe Carvalho opens Fifty Seconds on November 15, 2018 and a year later he wins his first Michelin star, aged 33.

In 2020, he receives the ‘Chef de L’Avenir’ Award, awarded by the International Academy of Gastronomy, an award that rewards a chef of recognized merit and with great potential for the future.