Nuno Mendes (born 1973) is a London-based Portuguese chef, former executive chef at

Chiltern Firehouse The Chiltern Firehouse is a restaurant and hotel located at 1 Chiltern Street, Marylebone, London, England occupying the Grade II listed building of the former Marylebone Fire Station, also known as Manchester Square Fire Station. It is owned by ...

, London.

Early life

Nuno Mendes was born and raised in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Career

Mendes was trained at the

California Culinary Academy The California Culinary Academy (CCA) was a for-profit school, and an affiliate of Le Cordon Bleu located in San Francisco, California. Danielle Carlisle established the school in 1977 to train chefs using the European education model. The origina ...

in the 1990s, worked at

elBulli El Bulli () was a restaurant near the town of Roses, Catalonia, Spain, run by chef Ferran Adrià and driven by the culinary ideas of Albert Adrià. The restaurant overlooked Cala Montjoi, a bay on Catalonia's Costa Brava. It held three Michelin st ...

, and has worked with

Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born July 8, 1949) is an Austrian-American chef and restaurateur. Early life and career Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. He learned cooking from his mother, who was a pastry chef. He took the surname o ...

Rocco di Spirito Rocco DiSpirito (born November 19, 1966) is an American chef and reality television personality based in New York City, known for starring in the program '' The Restaurant''. Early life and education DiSpirito was born in Queens, New York. He gr ...

, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In 2006, Mendes opened Bacchus, a

gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves gourmet comfort food. The term was coined in the 1990s, though similar brewpubs existed during the 1980s. Etymology The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coined in 1991, when David E ...

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. I ...

, and later opened The Loft Project, from his own apartment in

Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...

, "where some of the best chefs cooked in front of guests, offering a pioneering and intimate experience". In 2010, Mendes opened Viajante (Portuguese for "traveller") in

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heat ...

’s Town Hall Hotel, inspired by world cuisines. In its first year it received a

Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

and was included in the 2013

World's 50 Best Restaurants The World's Best 50 Restaurants is a list produced by UK media company William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine ''Restaurant'' in 2002. The list and awards however are no longer directly related to ''Restaurant'' magazine ...

. One critic said of the restaurant, "Nuno Mendes has brought a taste of El Bulli to the East End".

Giles Coren Giles Robin Patrick Coren (born 29 July 1969) is a British columnist, food writer, and television and radio presenter. He has been a restaurant critic for ''The Times'' newspaper since 2002, and was named Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the ...

of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' referred to Mendes as "every restaurant critic's secret favourite cook". In March 2022, Mendes opened a Portuguese restaurant, ''Lisboeta'' on Charlotte Street, London.

Personal life

Mendes has a daughter and twin sons, with his partner Clarise, a South African stylist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendes, Nuno 1973 births Living people Portuguese chefs People from Lisbon California Culinary Academy alumni English people of Portuguese descent