A Journey Around the World

Over five years and five menus, Hans Neuner has travelled around the world through a series of trips in search of Portugal’s Era dos Descobrimentos. Throughout the 15th to the 17th century, ships set sail from the shores of the Algarve to explore the New World, discovering new people, lands, and cultures.

Hans has followed Vasco de Gama’s voyage to India, took a tour of South America and Brazil, and even embarked on an expedition to Asia and the Far East. On each of these journeys, he was able to trace back the roots of Portuguese gastronomy to the unique stories we share in our food.

This year's trip would take Hans and his team to North America, from Newfoundland through Canada and the USA, but an interesting route back to Europe would inspire a new direction for Ocean’s menu…

We had already travelled a lot through South America, India, and the East, some of the most well known stops on the Age of Discoveries, so we decided to take a look at some of the Portuguese communities in North America.

These were stories we had not heard much about, places with connections that we did not really know about, so this was interesting to research and take a closer look at.

For example, we started off in Newfoundland, at a place called St.Johns, this was first discovered by a Portuguese explorer and first seen on a map as São João (St. John's). Funnily enough, we actually first travelled to the wrong St. John’s, but that is probably true to a lot of the challenges the first explorers had!

There is a strong Portuguese connection there, because of the salt cod, the Bacalhau, which is  a national ingredient here. This does not come from our waters, but, when salted, it had huge advantages for sea voyages to take back home. This was something from our first stop that would inspire the first dish on the new menu.

Newfoundland was interesting for me, I am from a cold country and it reminded me of home, so to find that connection to my new home reminded me of my own travels through life. That idea of travelling, and memories, became key to the menu. 

There is a huge Portuguese community in Montreal. It was an amazing experience to see this in the culture, the music, the art. The Portuguese explorers here were some of the first to land on North America, and later their fishermen came back here for the cod. You can see Portuguese restaurants, murals, and tiles, it is a place full of history.

We wanted to make that connection in a dish, which led to us looking at how we could connect the sea to a really Canadian ingredient like maple syrup. I think this works really well.

This was an interesting stop regarding Portuguese influences, because they originally came here from Madeira and the Azores for the sugarcane. You can see some of the influences in pastries, but we were more interested in the Huli-Huli chicken and its connection to our own Piri-Piri chicken.

It is very different, but you can see some of the ancestry, we actually traveled to 5 islands looking for the best chicken! We must have tried every restaurant in Hawaii! We each had our own opinion, but this was definitely an idea we wanted to play with in the menu.

This trip was quite different from what we have done before, it was eclectic. We went to New York, then to New Jersey, which has one of the biggest Portuguese communities in the US. Then down to San Francisco and San Jose, which was a surprise, there is actually a Little Portugal in San Jose!

There were these huge communities in places you would not expect them. Long after the Age of Discoveries, the Portuguese still traveled around the world to find a home.

The idea of travelling felt inspiring, it is something that I have always done, since I was a child, with my family. As chefs, it gives us the challenge of trying to recreate the experience, but also to make sure that we capture the history, the blending of cultures, how they influenced each other's food and history…

Yes! We actually travelled back around the world, returning to Europe through Bangkok and Japan. There were some long flights, and we really felt like we had travelled the long way round! And this became the concept for the new menu, a love for the joy of travel, like Phileas Fogg!

All these incredible experiences, going to these different places over the years, we have seen so much, learnt so much! This felt like the time to look back at this, and it becomes a homage to the joy of travelling itself.

Exactly. This menu captures moments from all of our travels over the past years, taking you on a journey around the world. We even start and finish on a tribute to my own childhood memories of traveling.

It was a privilege to visit all these places and meet all these people. We truly believe that travel broadens the mind... and the palate as well. The launch of a new menu is always a special moment, and we are very excited to be able to share this journey with our guests.