Food & Portrait Photography
Pestana Hotels & Pousadas, Portugal ·2026
When the Pestana Hotel Group invited me to create “The Chefs Project”, I knew right away I didn’t want just another corporate shoot. I wanted to show the kitchen chefs as no one had seen them before: real people, full of humour, talent and energy. I brought together teams from several of the group’s hotels and pousadas and invited them to play in front of my camera — and the result was an authentic celebration of people who live fine dining with passion and joy.
I photographed each chef in their element and, at the same time, out of it: balancing the golden CR7 sphere, “painting” canvases with sauce, arm-wrestling with spatulas, cradling a leg of ham like a baby, defying physics like mad cocktail scientists. I sought the right light, the moment of laughter and the camaraderie between colleagues. Every portrait was designed to reveal each professional’s unique personality, without ever losing the playful spirit that gave the project its name.
The highlight was the team photographs: dozens of chefs gathered amid blue smoke, pans in the air and laughter — a collective portrait of unity and lightness. I took this innovative approach to several of the group’s properties, from the Algarve to the Douro, from Lisbon to Cascais, and in each one I found the same desire to create something different. For me, this was one of the most authentic projects of my career — proof that hospitality photography can also be pure energy and humanity.