Chef Michel da Costa, the father of Olivier and the first to be awarded a Michelin star in Portugal, dies – Sociedade

Chef Michel da Costa, featured in the 1970s Michelin Guide, has passed away today at the age of 77, according to the Olivier Restoration Group.

Michel da Costa “was famous in Portugal for several generations through his television shows on RTP in the late 1970s and 1980s, as well as on SIC in the 1990s,” says the group’s statement, which is also run by “chef” and entrepreneur Olivier da Costa (son of Michel da Costa).

Born in Morocco, when this area was a French protectorate, and acquired Portuguese citizenship, the chef, trained in France, was in charge of a 5,040-meter table that in 1998 recorded the opening of the Vasco da Gama Bridge in the Guinness Book of Records. , with feijoada that has served more than 15 thousand people.

The restoration group states that Michel da Costa was also “responsible for Portugal’s entry into the European Union (then European Economic Community)” and “represented the country on several occasions in cities such as Vienna, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Maastricht and Sydney”.

Created at the beginning of the 20th century to help travelers on their travels, the Michelin Guide is now considered a world reference in restaurant qualification. Portugal entered the script in 1910, but the first stars arrived only in 1974.

Aviz and Michel restaurants (both in Lisbon), O Pipas (Cascais) and Portucale (Porto) were the first Portuguese spaces to receive a Michelin star, in the 1974 edition.

The first editions of the guide, launched in 1900 with a yellow cover, were intended to “help the traveler in his travels.”

The guide for Portugal and Spain was launched in 1910, and contains information about tires, itineraries, mechanics as well as hotels.