On September 29th and 30th, we welcomed our sixth award-winning chef Henrique Sá Pessoa from Portugal for the culinary event, Sky Stars.

HENRIQUE SA PESSOA was born in 1976 in Oeiras and discovered his love for cooking while on
an exchange program in the USA, where his secret dream was to become a basketball player.
Until 1999, he lived in London and worked at the Park Lane Hotel. He then moved to Sydney,
Australia, to work at the Sheraton on the Park during the 2000 Olympics. Two years later, he
returned to Portugal, and, over the following years, he worked variously at the Lapa Palace in
Lisbon, Restaurant Syrup in Cascais, La Villa in Estoril and the Bairro Alto Hotel in Lisbon.
In 2005, he was named ‘Best Chef of the Year’ in the most prestigious cooking contest in
Portugal and, in 2007, he was awarded the Horexpo Cup. That same year marked the publication
of his first book, Entre Pratos (Among Dishes), which brought together all of the recipes from
the first series of his television show of the same name, aired on RTP2. A second book followed
a year later, and he also won the Chef of the Year Award from the Academy of Portuguese
Gastronomy. To date, Chef Sá Pessoa has 7 books to his name.
In February 2009, he opened his first restaurant, Alma, which won Wine magazine’s Restaurant
of the Year award. In 2013, he opened in partnership Cais da Pedra, also in Lisbon. November
2015 Alma relocated to the most noble and historical part of the city, Chiado. Within the first
year of opening, Alma was awarded by the red guide with a *1 Michelin Star.
In 2017 he opened in Lisbon’s Príncipe Real neighbourhood, Tapisco, a small tapas and
petiscos bar serving Spanish and Portuguese influenced dishes. He also opened
Balcão in El Corte Inglês – Gourmet Experience, inspired by the Portuguese tavern. In
August 2018, Chef Henrique opened Tapisco Porto in Porto
By November 2018 alma chiado was awarded with a 2nd Michelin star.

source