Faro is attracting a growing number of foreign chefs, drawn by the city’s relaxed lifestyle, mild climate and access to high-quality local produce.
According to Lusa news agency, many are choosing to settle in the Algarve capital – which just welcomed its first Michelin star this week – and open restaurants that blend Portuguese ingredients with flavours from around the world.
A decade ago, international dining options in Faro were largely limited to pizzerias or Chinese restaurants, says Lusa. But the scene has been changing, with more sophisticated venues opening and an increasing focus on seasonal menus.
The shift has come alongside the growth of tourism in the municipality. In 2014, Faro had 141 traditional restaurants with table service. By 2024, that number had risen to 221, according to data from Portugal’s National Statistics Institute (INE) and quoted by Lusa.
Faro is motivating for chefs
Argentinian chef Josefina Cardeza arrived in Portugal in 2004 and initially settled in Lisbon, where she opened two restaurants. At the end of 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, she opened Los Locos in Faro.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Cardeza – known as “Ju” – says the city changed significantly afterwards, opening up more to tourism and seeing many new restaurants appear as visitor numbers increased.
Running a small restaurant, the 50-year-old says opening in larger tourist hotspots such as Vilamoura or Almancil might have been easier. But she finds Faro more motivating, especially as local diners begin exploring more varied cuisine.
“It gives me pleasure when people have new experiences,” she says, explaining that the restaurant reflects her personality. “It’s like eating at my home while I tell stories. Here everything tells a story.”
A few years later, American chef Sean Marsh was attracted by the climate, quality of life and the ingredients available in the Algarve and decided to transform a former seafood restaurant into a bistro called ATO.
Marsh, now 40, moved to Europe in 2011 and eventually decided to settle in Faro, a city he says he already had an emotional connection with.
He believes running a restaurant in a city such as Lisbon would require far longer working hours just to cover rent.
“You would have to be open for lunch and dinner, seven days a week, to pay the rent,” he says.
Instead, he opted for what he sees as a smaller and less risky market. “I’d rather be the captain of a smaller boat,” says the chef, who opened the restaurant in 2022.
That same year, chef Sky Visser opened Céu, a restaurant combining Asian and South American cuisine inspired by the flavours he grew up with.
The 27-year-old, whose father is Dutch and mother is Indonesian, was born and raised in Curaçao in the Caribbean. He says he was partly influenced to move to the Algarve after his parents retired there.
Visser says he was quickly won over by the lifestyle, mild winters and the quality of local ingredients.
“I needed a place that wasn’t too cold, with a calmer lifestyle. Faro has a lot of potential. It’s almost a forgotten city, because the tourism boom arrived here later than in other parts of the Algarve, which was good for the city,” he says.
Despite being the most populous city in the district, Faro long served mainly as the gateway for tourists arriving through its airport.
The city’s first hostel opened in 2011, and it was only in 2021 that Faro gained its first five-star hotel.
This year, the city also reached a milestone in fine dining. For the first time, a Faro restaurant – Alameda, led by chef Rui Sequeira – was awarded one star in the Michelin Guide Portugal 2026, recognising what inspectors described as “high-quality cooking, worth a stop.”
Source: LUSA
