Ingenious curation is at the heart of Cura, where the Michelin-starred chef and chief culinary curator Pedro Pena Bastos selects his ingredients as meticulously as an artist chooses his paints, drawing from Lisbon's rich palette of seasonal ingredients to create handcrafted dishes of great depth, taste and meaning.
In his open kitchen, the chef intends to bring "more joy and soul" to Cura's offer than is usual in haute cuisine. It works with small local suppliers to source ingredients of excellent taste and condition, and harvests others, such as crispy reindeer moss, marbled black pork meat from Alentejo and "the best chickpeas we can find" directly from nature. Its menu features around a dozen dishes at the same time, which change according to the season, and
tries to work with just two or three "a very sharp knife" ingredients at a time, to better ensure that guests enjoy the food the way it was meant to be enjoyed.