With 10 restaurants across the globe, including one which boasts two Michelin stars in Portugal, JOIA in London holds a “special place in my heart,” says chef Henrique Sá Pessoa.
Henrique’s youth was spent with dreams of becoming a basketball player, before trying and failing an accountancy course.
Accounting’s loss was hospitality’s gain as Henrique joined cookery school aged 20, opening his first restaurant a decade later and winning a Michelin star in 2015.
From Lisbon to London: A Chef’s Journey
Alma in Lisbon has held two stars for the past seven years, while Vinha in Porto also boasts a star.
Henrique has expanded outside of Portugal in recent years, with ventures in Amsterdam, Macau and Dubai, as well as JOIA, which overlooks Battersea Power Station.
“London for me, it's got a special place in my heart,” said Henrique.
“London is where I started my career. I lived in London for three years back in the 90s.
“I find London very different from back then. I had to almost re-educate myself about the London dining scene.
“I was in London when Marco (Pierre White) was at the peak, Gordon (Ramsay) was still chasing his third star, Jamie Oliver was coming up. So obviously things changed a lot in this last 25 to 30 years.
“I see London now with an amazing dining scene, especially when we talk about different cuisines. I think London back then was very much dominated by French and Italian food. Now you see everything.
“I had to find how am I going to bring also a new concept with Iberian cuisine.
“There's some Portuguese restaurants. There's a lot of Spanish restaurants, but one that combines both, I think there's not many. So that was the challenge. I think with JOIA, we were able to do it.”
Blending Portuguese and Spanish Traditions
Portugal-born Henrique has Spanish blood in his family and he blends the two cuisines in his cooking style.
He worked across the world, in the USA, Australia and England, at the likes of the Sheraton Grand Hotel and Pan Pacific, before making waves in Portugal with his own restaurants.
Asked how he would best describe JOIA, which means ‘jewel’ in Portuguese and is situated on the 15th floor of art’otel, Henrique said: “Simply put, I would say JOIA is the perfect combination between Spanish and Portuguese cuisine in one restaurant.
“What I try to do is bring some of my classic dishes, signature dishes, in a simplified version from Portugal, obviously using some known Portuguese ingredients, like, for example, salted cod.
“Also picking up some of my favourite Spanish ingredients, because I also have a Spanish side from my grandfather, who was married to a Catalan lady.
“That was the first international food that I tried, besides obviously Portuguese. I grew up eating both Portuguese and Spanish.
“And also we wanted to incorporate British ingredients, mainly seafood. So it's a very seafood driven restaurant and keeping that simplicity of Portuguese cooking and Spanish cooking as well, the olive oil-based dishes, the fresh herbs, the grilled fish and the grilled meats, the Iberian pork.
“Try to bring all that with this amazing view, great cocktails and just a great environment.”
Inside the JOIA Dining Experience
JOIA, which opened in early 2023, offers different dining experiences. From a quick drink on the rooftop bar to a tasting menu in the restaurant, JOIA is versatile, but with one consistent theme - welcoming vibe.
“The space is just absolutely stunning,” said Henrique.
“There's a saying actually by Marco Pierre White, who is one of my favourite chefs
of all time. He says that a restaurant is 33% service, 33% ambience and 33% kitchen.
“I know chefs are the stars of nowadays, but in the end you go back to a restaurant because of the other factors as well. So we wanted to have this nice cool vibe in the restaurant and the bar and obviously music is something that plays an important role in creating this ambience.
“We've got some decks and we've got DJs playing, we’ve had a guy playing Spanish guitar. I think that just adds to the experience at JOIA.”
Quizzed on how different JOIA is compared to his two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Lisbon, Henrique explained: “I have 10 restaurants globally and people always ask me, do we have the same restaurant, Alma, in other places, or do you replicate restaurants?
“I don't believe in that, because I really think you need to feel the space.
“You need to know the city, you need to see who's going to be your main customers. For a space like this, it wouldn't make sense to do something like, for example, Alma. Alma is a 32-seat restaurant. It's very intimate. You're going there for a tasting experience.
“Here, you can come in if you want to have a tasting menu, but if you just want to have a tapa, a drink, sit at the bar, I think it's important to give as much options to your customers as possible. And create an environment, because you can have someone doing a tasting menu next to you and you can have someone just drinking a glass of wine and having a tapa as well.
“It’s fine to have those two scenarios in one restaurant.
“Our service is super relaxed, attentive, professional, but at the same time fun, engaging with the customer and almost making you feel at home.
“I like when people come in and look at you like I'm at your house, just relax. I've got a pillow on the back, have a glass of wine, enjoy the music, enjoy the view and just keep it simple as well.”
Balancing a Global Empire of Restaurants
With Henrique splitting his time across so many restaurants, a lot of the trust at JOIA is placed in head chef Cristian Fernández.
Explaining how he integrates new people into the business, Henrique explained: “We bring them to Portugal and they spend a week with me there, because I want them to not only understand a little bit about my food philosophy, but also know the city, know the restaurants.
“They go and spend a few days in Alma and Tapisco, just so they can understand the differences in how they can bring what's unique about those restaurants when they come back to London.
“When we do the menu design, it's mainly a collaborative talk. Cristian starts having some ideas, I start having some ideas. I also have a chef that works for me on developing called Rodrigo.
“So every time I change the menu, we both come here and we spend the first month prior to coming, we have several calls. Sometimes I will do a full-on video preparation and send it to them, because that can be better than just a recipe.
“We change the menu twice a year. But on top of that, Cristian also does specials, with whatever local, fresh and seasonal ingredients he finds here in the UK.”
He added: “To succeed in London is definitely a challenge. It's such a competitive market, it's very hard to stand out in London.
“So for me just to be able to have a restaurant running for this long in London is already something that I consider a great achievement.”
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