<![CDATA[ Quem é Maria Alice Marto, a primeira chef portuguesa a conseguir uma estrela Michelin?  ]]>

On Tuesday night, the 25th, the restaurants Marlene , in Lisbon, and Blind , in Porto, achieved their first Michelin star , which made chefs Marlene Vieira and Rita Magro join Maria Alice Marto as the Portuguese starred chefs.

Maria Alice Marto, 88, received a Michelin star in 1993 with her restaurant Tia Alice and until yesterday, no other woman had achieved the same. Maria Alice Marto kept the star for three years.

Tia Alice , an enigmatic family restaurant in Fátima to this day, opened in 1988 when the chef was already 53 years old. All her culinary knowledge comes from family tradition and the curiosity that led her to read several recipe books to improve her skills, as stated on the restaurant's website . The reality is that it took her just five years to earn her first Michelin star.

During her youth she spent time in Lisbon and Mozambique, where she lived for over twenty years and had six children who later helped her build the restaurant. She returned to Portugal in 1973 with her children, but her husband only arrived after the revolution.

Maria Alice Marto has a family connection with the shepherd children Jacinta and Francisco. Her great-grandfather was the brother of the shepherd children's father and they were about twenty years apart, hence their shared surname Marto.

After her father died, she inherited the house where she was born and turned it into a social space for family and friends, who encouraged her to open a restaurant. In 2022, she recalled to Expresso : "Oh, so good, Auntie Alice, so good, Auntie Alice... Oh, Auntie Alice, you have so much space, why don't you open a restaurant? You cook like no one else!" and that's how Auntie Alice was born.

Maria Alice Marto was awarded by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in 2022, with the rank of Officer of the Order of Business Merit, Industrial Merit Class, due to "her contribution to the image of the country beyond borders, as a worthy representative of traditional Portuguese cuisine". Still in terms of awards, in November 2024 she was distinguished by TheFork Award and in 2020 she received the Golden Fork from the Boa Cama Boa Mesa guide and the Mesa com Mérito distinction.

Many illustrious people have passed through the rooms of her house, from Mário Soares to Ramalho Eanes, including Valentino and José Tolentino Mendonça. José Saramago even said that one day they should create a Nobel Prize for Gastronomy in honour of Maria Alice Marto.

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