FOGO by Alexandre Silva in Lisbon

Chef Alexandre Silva has said that he thinks the days of fine dining as we know it are numbered. Not to worry—his Michelin-starred restaurant, LOCO, is still going strong (and is still one of the best gourmet experiences in Lisbon). But his new venture is something much more primal.

As the name implies, FOGO is a restaurant that celebrates fire. The open kitchen has a collection of open flames, over which everything is cooked on grills, in small pots, in ovens, in a giant 80kg pot, and sometimes on a spit. They go through a lot of wood.

It’s a simple recipe: animal protein plus fire—a return to the food of our distant ancestors. But while it may be simple, it’s not easy. The ingredient must be top quality and the technique must be precise (and it’s not as easy as turning a knob on a conventional stove).

But Silva and his deputies, resident chef Manuel Liebaut and sous-chef Ronald Sim (who cooked at Burnt Ends in Singapore, widely considered the best fire restaurant in the world), do it quite well. They start with choosing national and organic products from small producers. Silva says, “The good product, and not necessarily the most noble, is the best fuel.”

A dinner might start with the house-made, slow-fermented bread and various delicious things to spread on it. From there, the menu is separated into starters such as razor clams or tiny berbigão clams with a superb bulhão pato, main dishes of fish, and main dishes of meat, though it changes daily depending on which ingredients are top quality. The lobster is worth the splurge.

That said, sharing is the way to go, as this is a casual place, with bare tables, walls lined with firewood, orange lamps hanging from the ceiling that look as if they themselves contain fire. The lively ambience is helped along with creative cocktails by barman João Bruno and sommelier Francisco Oliveira’s wine list with 180 references, many of which are natural, organic, or biodynamic.