British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver visited Porto two weeks ago, visiting several stores and restaurants in the northern Portuguese city on a quest for “new ideas and inspiration”.
Among the businesses he visited were O Rápido restaurant on Rua da Madeira, near the iconic São Bento station.
Speaking to Jornal de Notícias, owner Francisco Norte said the British chef was there for around three hours trying a variety of dishes, such as octopus fillets and grilled ‘alheira’ (typical Portuguese sausage).
Oliver also visited wooden boards store Loja das Tábuas.
“It was a short conversation. He was with his filming crew, and he had to leave urgently. It was a short visit, but it was a nice one,” part-owner Alfredo Costa told MAGG magazine.
The 46-year-old TV chef also took to his Instagram page to post a short video walking down the city’s Rua de Santa Catarina, providing some background to his trip to Porto and praising the city and its people, as well as its traditional tiles.
“Porto is amazing, the food is extraordinary, the people are just delightful, and I’m just going around picking up new ideas, inspiration, learning the culture,” Oliver said in an Instagram post.
