It’s 11am when the door bell rings. They arrive smiling, full of bags and eager to indulge us with some of their favorite dishes. But unhurried: at O Apartamento, everything involving food requests time to taste, enjoy and share.

Eliana Nunes and Miguel Rita understood our concept from the first minute but they jumped into the kitchen anyway, with the same speed and dexterity as they do it every day at Pratinho Feio. They don’t have cooking training but their hearts are full of cooking skills. That is reflected in the gentle way they work with food, play with flavors and delight themselfs at the table when it’s time to eat. While we are working in the office, the aroma of cumin and other spices fills our noses and makes us rumbling stomachs. It smells like comfort food, just like the one they serve in their restaurant.

The vast majority of the recipes they present comes from Eliana’s family influence. Born in Angola and raised between Castelo Branco and a secluded village near Sertã, she always loved the time spent at the stove with her grandmother and her mother. The studies took her to the universe of tourist entertainment but fate wanted her to eventually experience the working life of a restaurant to earn some extra cash. Against the odds she fell in love with it and decided that this was what she intended to do with her life.

She worked in other kitchens for five years and than realized that if she wanted to follow this path it had to be on her way. “Working in a kitchen is not an easy life. Unless you are in a place that makes you feel like you’re with family, you have to work on something that’s yours”. In the absence of the first option, Eliana went for the second one.

One day – while buying eggplants in a grocery store close the her home –  she crossed with two friends, Ana Reis and Joana Girão, and told them about her plan. She was so passionate that they decided to join her to open a restaurant. Based on Eliana’s mother and grandmother recipes, Pratinho Feio was born. A restaurant whose food is not always beautiful to the eye but always honest and a comfort to the stomach. Her grandma’s goatling casserole, which she cooked us for this get together, is just one of many examples.

Grandma’s goatling casserole with potato crumbs

With Miguel as her right arm – who also felt divided between performing arts area and his love for food – the team in the kitchen couldn’t be better. Against all setbacks of the portuguese economical crisis, Pratinho Feio is now celebrating one year of existence. With great creativity, dedication and passion for the art of eating well. Like mozambican writer Mia Couto once wrote, “cooking is a way of loving others”. Eliana and Miguel prove it.

Lemon curd crumble with basil whipped cream