Chef João Lourenço

João Lourenço is a Portuguese chef based in Athens and often working in Portugal. He studied medicine, but cooking kept pulling him back. In 2013 he decided to follow that passion and started cooking professionally in Berlin, where he was studying. After starting at Grill Royale, he worked at The Store in Soho House for two years and began then hosting privately supper clubs, where the seasons were the centrepiece of each month’s concept.

Paris brought a different rhythm for seven years. João first cooked at Dersou with late Japanese chef Taku Sekine, then alone at The Broken Arm. It was there that the relation with luxury and fashion began and he soon founded his own events and catering. His clients included the main Parisian fashion houses Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Chanel, Chaumet, amongst others, as well as European and global production companies such as JN, Cinq Étoiles, A.P. Studio. The meal was often part of something larger, a shooting, a launch, a campaign or a show, and the food had to stand up next to everything else. Some iconic locations like Palais Royal, Théatre National de Chaillot, Espace Niemeyer, Tennis Club de Paris and Culturgest make part of his docket.

Today João lives in Athens, focusing on private dining, supper clubs, celebrations and events of different character and size. For two years he was head chef at the Embassy of Portugal in Athens, cooking Portugal and Greece for the people who represent them, at official dinners and receptions, where dishes had to feel like home and still be worth remembering. Beyond Athens, he travels for longer collaborations in residences, pop-ups and also luxury retreats, where the food belongs to the rhythm of a whole stay and not just to a single moment.

Every menu is tailor-made for the occasion and never the same twice. Still, you can expect it to be seasonal, hyperlocal and fresh, respecting geography while evoking memory and different origins. Blasts of colour, simplicity and yet complexity. After years in Germany, France, Greece and Portugal, João knows how to read a room and cook for it, whether it’s a dinner for six at home, a restaurant space or a reception for dozens. He speaks six languages and many more culinary ones.

Alongside the commissions, he takes part in artistic projects, including with the Goethe-Institut Portugal and the EU-funded UNFOLD Project. These projects looked at what happens to food when a city changes: how gentrification reshapes markets, kitchens and tables, how it affects local and vulnerable communities, and how farming and the people who work the land are part of the same story. For him, these questions belong to cooking. They decide what gets grown, what stays affordable and who gets a seat at the table.

João also works with people opening new restaurants, consulting, developing custom menus with them and training their teams to carry them out day after day. Flavour profile is always a priority, but so are profitability and sustainability. He shares his methods through online cooking tutorials and hosts workshops for anyone interested.