Chef MargaridaMargarida
From Avó Leonor's Kitchen
Where memory lives in the scent of cinnamon and olive oil
Margarida Azevedo grew up between two worlds — the bustling energy of Lisbon and the sun-drenched silence of her grandmother's kitchen in Alentejo. It was there, watching Avó Leonor's hands move with a certainty that no recipe book could teach, that she first understood food as something more than sustenance.
Every summer, the kitchen became a classroom. Leonor never measured, never timed, never wrote anything down. She cooked the way she breathed — instinctively, completely, without question. The recipes lived in her hands, in the tilt of a pot, in the precise moment she knew the cataplana was ready by sound alone.
Margarida didn't know it then, but she was witnessing something disappearing. A knowledge system, passed mouth to mouth and hand to hand for generations, that existed nowhere except in the women who carried it.
She cooked the way she breathed — instinctively, completely, without question.
Mesa da Avó
A pop-up that became a movement
The idea came to her at a funeral. An elderly woman from a village near Évora had passed, and with her went forty years of knowledge about a particular açorda recipe that no one else in the village could replicate. The dish died with its keeper.
Margarida launched Mesa da Avó — Grandmother's Table — as a pop-up dinner series in Lisbon. Each event celebrates a different grandmother's repertoire, pairing traditional dishes with the stories behind them. Guests don't just eat; they sit with history.
What started as a passion project has grown into a mission. Margarida is now documenting recipes from grandmothers across Portugal for her first cookbook, racing against time to preserve what textbooks never captured.
The dish died with its keeper. That was the moment everything changed.
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Recipes That Refuse to Die
Preserving what grandmothers know before it's too late
Margarida's work is urgent because the clock is ticking. Across Portugal, elderly women hold centuries of culinary knowledge that exists nowhere in written form. When they're gone, their recipes go with them — not just the ingredients, but the techniques, the timing, the instinct.
Her approach is part anthropology, part cooking school. She spends weeks with each grandmother, learning not just what they cook but why. The stories matter as much as the spice blends. Context is the ingredient that no recipe card can capture.
Context is the ingredient that no recipe card can capture.
Margarida's Culinary World
Portuguese Regional Cuisine
From Minho's vinho verde country to the Algarve's seafood coast — every region tells a different story
Preservation & Fermentation
Traditional techniques for preserving seasonal ingredients — salt cod, pickled vegetables, fruit preserves
Bread & Pastry Traditions
Corn breads, sweet egg pastries, and the art of the pastel de nata — baking as cultural identity
Seafood & Coastal Cooking
Bacalhau in all its forms, cataplana, caldeirada — the Atlantic shapes every plate
Non-Negotiables
- Proper bacalhau soaking — 48 hours minimum, water changed every 8
- Real azeite (olive oil) from the Alentejo — never substituted, never skimped
- Seasonality respected — strawberries in June, chestnuts in November
- The refogado (sofrito base) must be patient — never rushed, never burned
- Bread at every meal — it's not a side, it's a participant
A cozinha é memória
The kitchen is memory
Her guiding philosophy — food connects us to who we were
Não se mede, sente-se
You don't measure, you feel
What Avó Leonor always said when asked for recipe measurements
A mesa é onde a família acontece
The table is where family happens
Why every Mesa da Avó dinner starts with everyone seated together
Why This Matters
For Margarida, cooking is an act of remembering. Every dish she preserves is a conversation with someone who may no longer be here to have it. The recipes are love letters written in olive oil and salt, and her job is to make sure they're still being read.
She doesn't romanticize the past or reject the present. Her cooking is rooted in tradition but alive in the moment — she wants these recipes to be cooked tonight, in your kitchen, with whatever you have. Because the best way to honor a grandmother's recipe is to make it your own.
The best way to honor a grandmother's recipe is to make it your own.
By the Numbers
Has documented over 200 recipes from 47 grandmothers across 12 Portuguese regions
Can identify the region of origin of a bacalhau dish by its seasoning alone
Keeps a journal of 'lost recipes' — dishes she's heard about but never found anyone who can still make them
Her Mesa da Avó pop-ups sell out in under 3 minutes
“A cozinha é memória”
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