This book is not just a tribute to our fish and our seafood: it is also a warm tribute to all our generous fishermen who have toiled each passing day over the centuries, braving many dangers to bring this blessed, delicious product to our tables.
In order to enjoy it in all its flavour and voluptuousness, fish must be more than just fresh and of high quality, even though this has paved the way to a unique approach to cooking fish since way back - grilled over charcoal. Simple (rather than simplistic) cooking, which adds just a bit of heat from the coal to the deep taste of the sea.
Another absolutely necessary feature is the presence of our chefs, both those who prepare dishes from our rich popular and traditional cuisine and those who graduated from schools in state-of-the-art cuisine, whose creative new, imaginative and complex fish and seafood dishes are a source of pleasure and ecstasy.
This book is also a tribute to these chefs, who are a cornerstone of our rich culinary heritage. It is a tribute to all those who deliver fish to our homes and to the four corners of the world in a faultless condition of freshness and flavour, and to all men of science who guarantee the knowledge, sustainability and preservation of fish species in the future.
And to all who visit us and are enchanted by our tasty, healthy and wonderful cuisine, as well as those who live here and who proudly make Portugal one of the world's largest consumers of fish, this book aims to be a most deserved tribute.
«What struck me most in Portugal was the quality of its fish and seafood. Wonderful and impressive. For me they are the best in the world.»
Ferran Adrià