There are many things in life that take only fifty seconds. It’s how long it takes for the average runner to complete three hundred meters, the length of the intro segment of Bohemian Rhapsody and the time needed to bring a standard kettle to boil. Visitors to the Louvre in Paris are given on average fifty seconds to gawk at Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece and her mysterious smile, the same time it takes to scream yourself hoarse on Kingda Ka, the world’s tallest and scariest rollercoaster. Meanwhile, in Portugal, the elevator that transports diners from street level to one of the hottest Michelin-approved dining experiences in Lisbon’s starry skies also takes fifty seconds. Hence the name.
Fifty Seconds restaurant is set in an eye-popping dining space, towering 120 meters above the Portuguese capital, in the Vasco da Gama tower that dominates Lisbon’s skyline. Built in 1998 as an homage to the famed Portuguese explorer by the same name, the tower’s crowning glory is a dining space in which to celebrate one of the greatest of Portuguese achievements of modern time – its fantastic gastronomy.
Led by chef Rui Silvestre, who grabbed the attention of the culinary world in 2015 when he became the youngest chef in Portugal to win a Michelin Star at age 29, Fifty Seconds is his most grown-up project to date, showcasing a menu that is full of surprises, bold flavors and unexpected combinations of ingredients.
The Backstory
Born in northern Portugal and raised in the Algarve from age 10, food has always played a major part in Rui Silvestre’s life. Growing up in a family of cooks, the young Rui could often be found helping out in the kitchen as a child. He continues to be inspired by family and food – two key influences that he says contributed to making him the person and chef he is today and that guests can easily taste in many of his dishes and his very distinctive personal cooking style.
“Food was always very, very important in my life. I grew up with a lot of close influences from cooks in my family. My grandmother was a chef in France and my grandmother was also a great cook. When I was 16 years old I got my first experience in a professional kitchen. I was spending my summer with friends and there was a big wedding in the hotel where we were staying, and I ended up helping in the kitchen. Right from that experience I fell in love. The concentration, the pressure, the heat of the kitchen. It was amazing,” says Rui. 
He graduated from the kitchen to culinary school and, after working in Portugal for a year, he spent almost a decade in some of the leading restaurants in France and Switzerland. In legendary establishments like the three-star Michelin Le Castellet of Christophe Bacquié, Rui Silvestre immersed himself in the world of fine dining. On his return to Portugal, he applied all his learnings and experiences to develop his own unique style. And it paid off. In 2015, Silvestre became the youngest chef in Portuguese history to be awarded a coveted Michelin star and, in 2018, he repeated the feat after taking the helm at Vistas, a fine-dining restaurant set within the Monte Rei Golf & Country Club in Vila Nova de Cacela.
The Big Leagues
Rui looks at his cooking career as if it was sports and for him, coming to Lisbon means finally getting a chance to play in the biggest arena of his beloved country. He waited a lifetime to get the perfect opportunity to come to Lisbon in the right way, and when Sana Hotels Group approached him, he didn’t doubt for one second that this was it. Formerly run by Spain’s most-starred chef of all time, Martín Berasategui, Fifty Seconds was looking for a change, and preferably, for a homegrown Portuguese chef to lead this new era. With the restaurant keen to shine the spotlight on Portuguese culinary talent, Silvestre was the obvious first choice.
His move from the Algarve to Lisbon was announced in February 2024, much to the delight of the Portuguese capital’s fine-dining enthusiasts. Silvestre brings with him his passion for national flavors and the finest raw materials Portugal has to offer, with a particular emphasis on fish and seafood. A fan of unorthodox fusions and innovatively blending products from the land and the sea, the chef has gained notoriety for his boldly punchy dishes and exceptional flavor combinations.
“Fifty Seconds already has a success story in Lisbon with Martín Berasategui and it really made me proud to be chosen to lead their next chapter. It is a huge honor to have that level of trust from the Miryad team and follow such a huge star in the culinary world, and I take it with great humility. It doesn’t really make me feel pressured, it makes me proud and excited for the future,” explains the chef.
Fifty Second’s New Era
For Rui, this new era doesn’t really feel like a comeback story and as a chef he believes that he simply needs to prove himself every single day, and that’s what he does. By being consistent and pushing himself to make the good, great and the best, even better, Rui has found a way to maintain the Michelin star for Fifty Seconds and to now show an even more mature and refined personal cooking style than the one he showed in Algarve.
His 14-course tasting menu is a tribute to the balance of Portuguese flavours, the pristine beauty of the sea, and the Indian and African influences inherited from his family. His cooking is precise, expressive, and deeply personal.
“I believe that I completely understand the type of chef that I want to be and I’m not looking for an identity anymore. All I want is to express myself through my cooking. I really enjoy working with spices and seafood because I love looking for the perfect balance between them. It’s always been a very important part of my cooking DNA. I’m definitely still pushing for that. I’m older now and I feel more confident in my own point of view. That has given me the chance to make dishes that seem more simple but that are way more complex in flavor and depth,” tells Silvestre.
A Very Personal Menu
At Fifty Seconds every detail, flavor and dish has a different story to tell. Rui was born into a multicultural environment, more specifically he’s the grandson of an Indian grandmother, a Mozambican mother and a Portuguese father. His childhood memories are closely linked to the smells of spices, the sound of sea waves, salt and fire, and all of that serves as inspiration for him.
Normally restaurants ease their guests into the menu but Rui uses the first bites to show a representation of who he is. When guests start the meal at Fifty Seconds, they start strong. With a punch of textures and flavors, a moment that gets them excited and gives them a preview of the kind of dinner that they will have.
Portuguese history is always included in some way in Rui’s menus, and right now his snacks are a representation of some of the colonial travels of the Portuguese. He starts with a prawn tartar with a foam of Tom Yum, spicy and elegant. Next to it comes a tartalet with smoky grilled lobster and harissa, a Maghreb influence, and last, a dashi macaron base topped with Singaporean style crab. The excitement continues with dishes like his famous onion, sea urchin and caviar trio, or the amberjack crudo with a super fresh and flavorful jalapeño and cucumber light sauce.
A Star Dish
The carabinero curry has undoubtedly become Rui’s star dish and the one that best represents his culinary style. He makes a carabinero curry, like the curry done in Mozambique. The most interesting element of the dish and the one that always makes the biggest impact according to Rui is the lemon Achaar, which they make with preserved lemons and gives a punch of flavor and spice to the dish.
On Sundays, some families eat roast chicken for lunch, others Cozido, the traditional stew. For Rui, it was a curry. Rui uses Mozambiquean-style curry as the sauce for this incredible scarlet prawn to honor the Sunday family meals his mother and grandmother used to make for him.
I tried making the scarlet prawn with curry because in Africa, in Mozambique, one of the best curries that you can have is done with spider crab. So we created this version with carabinero and it really is perfect. You have the spiciness of the curry and the achaar, the sweetness and strength of the prawn, the freshness of the lemon and then we add a side dish with the head of the prawn, filled with a prawn foam and serve it with a steamed bread to use to absorb every last drop of the sauce. It is the 5th year that I’ve included a version of this dish in my menus and it still makes me feel at home,” explains Silvestre.
Marc’s Wine World
Enhancing the dining experience, Head Sommelier Marc Pinto, distinguished as The Best Sommelier at The Michelin Portugal Gala 2025 in Porto, also named Portugal’s Best Sommelier in 2022 and a three-time National Sommelier Championship winner, expertly curates an exquisite wine pairing. His deep understanding of food and wine synergy ensures that each pairing elevates and enriches the complexity of every dish.
“This award is not just a recognition of my work, but of a philosophy I have always upheld. There is a difference between standing and sitting, and we must always remember that the experience is about the person sitting at the table. Wine is a powerful tool to create moments, awaken emotions, and turn a meal into a memory. At Fifty Seconds, every bottle tells a story, and our goal is to move those who taste it. This award belongs to the team, to the producers, and to every guest who embarks on this journey with us. We will continue to challenge ourselves to always exceed expectations,” explains Marc.
His vision for the wine experience at Fifty Seconds is clear. For Marc, choosing a wine cannot be just a technical decision; it must be an emotional one. He believes that wine should be an extension of the kitchen, the service, and the overall experience and that guests must always feel that they have received more than what they paid for. That feeling does not come from the price of the bottle, but from the details, the attention, the discovery. The right wine at the right moment can transform a dinner into a memory that lasts a lifetime.
“Our wine list is not just a collection of labels; it is an invitation to feel, to experience wine as something that connects us to the place, the moment, and the people around us. There is a certain egocentrism in this process because we want our guests to feel that Fifty Seconds is the best place to experience happiness—a space where we come so close to the sky that we can almost touch the softness of the clouds with our fingertips, extracting from each visit all the pleasure that the experience can offer”, closes Marc.
Fifty Seconds
Cais das Naus, Lote 2.21.01 Parque das Nações, 1990-173 Lisbon, Portugal
www.fiftysecondsexperience.com
I didn’t know this, that’s exciting!!