Chefs on Fire is gearing up for its biggest expansion in Cascais. The now-iconic gastronomic festival, founded in 2018 and dedicated to the art of cooking with fire, is leaving FIARTIL in Estoril and moving to the Parque Marechal Carmona in Cascais. This was one of the major announcements made on Thursday, January 23rd, during the unveiling of the municipality's events calendar for the year. The next edition is scheduled for the weekend of September 20th-21st, with a Corporate Day exclusively for businesses on September 19th.
"We've always loved FIARTIL, it's an unforgettable place, but the truth is the festival was growing too fast, and we had reached the limits of what we could do there", explains Chefs on Fire founder, Gonçalo Castel-Branco, to Time Out. "The festival wasn't originally intended to grow too much. The goal was never to make it massive, but to remain a boutique festival. Even so, we were hitting the limit of the venue, and it was starting to cause headaches for the neighbourhood, taking up the streets and so on. As Chefs on Fire grows globally, it's crucial for us to keep the Cascais edition as the best Chefs on Fire in the world. There were a number of upgrades we wanted to make that weren't possible at FIARTIL."
That’s when they started thinking about a new location. The only option they considered was Parque Marechal Carmona and the surrounding area near Praia de Santa Marta. "It has a beach, sea, lighthouse, palace, green spaces for people to lie down... It has a diversity and an iconography of Cascais that is phenomenal. It’s like Cascais in a nutshell. FIARTIL had its advantages, but it lacked, among other things, grass, beach, and the sea... Here, we are going to embrace the aesthetics of Cascais with both hands."
Gonçalo Castel-Branco spent the last two and a half years preparing for this transition. Several tests were carried out at the new site, including a pop-up fine dining experience and the recording of an episode of MasterChef Spain, before the final decision was made. Although he won’t reveal details, he says the use of the Parque Marechal Carmona space will be distinct from other events held there.
"Just the idea of having a beach within the festival is incredible – I don’t know any other festival with a beach. Each space suggests a different interpretation and story, and now that we’ve proven that Chefs on Fire has huge flexibility – from the rooftop of the IDB to the Maldives, through Aveiro and Foz Côa – we can chase stories we haven’t been able to tell yet. Some things we tested in Madrid, in a space more similar to Marechal Carmona."
In this new venue, Chefs on Fire – which will also feature concerts – will be able to grow. The festival is expected to host around 5,000 people per day, compared to the 3,000 daily entries FIARTIL allowed. Saturday and Sunday will be open to the public, more focused on families, while Friday will be dedicated to the Corporate Day for businesses.
“We realised that on Fridays, the audience we were attracting was mainly corporate. Saturdays and Sundays were more family-oriented. So, we increased the capacity for Saturday and Sunday to accommodate more families, and we dedicated Friday to Corporate Day, where we’ll have a model similar to the Estoril Open,” he explains. “Sponsors and companies can rent a tent with 50, 100, or 200 seats dedicated only to them, with access exclusive to their guests. It’s a different model, entirely designed for businesses and corporate. Companies in Portugal have many meetings – a Christmas party, a summer party – but traditionally, it was always something very... a pavilion, croquettes, DJ. And nowadays, they’re looking for a different kind of experience. So, we’ve seen increasing demand, from both small and large companies, for Chefs on Fire – and it was time to test it."
"Chefs on Fire 2.0"
The new Chefs on Fire doesn’t stop there, Gonçalo Castel-Branco reveals to Time Out. One of the innovations concerns tickets. Previously, tickets started at €60 and could go up to €200, depending on the food included. This year, there will be standard tickets for €50, which only guarantee entry, and visitors can then pay separately for whatever they wish to taste inside.
There will also be, for the first time, a fine dining area installed somewhere in Parque Marechal Carmona. "It will be a fine dining dinner for 24 people during the festival week, all focused on fire. It will depend on the nights, but it will often feature chefs who don’t have the profile or availability to cook 1,500 portions, which is what you need for Chefs on Fire, but still wanted to participate. I had many chefs tell me: 'I would love to, but with my food, I can't make 1,500 portions, it’s not possible.' So we created this space to include these chefs, both national and international, and simultaneously have a zone for talks on gastronomy. Many chefs, and not just them, but other thinkers as well, will have two or three sessions per day focused on the sector. The future of gastronomy, the history of cooking with fire, and so on."
Gonçalo Castel-Branco describes this innovative edition as "Chefs on Fire 2.0." "Up until now, we've been improving bit by bit year after year, but this time it's something we've been preparing for a while."
At the same time, the organisation is preparing the next edition in Madrid, already scheduled for October 4-5; and negotiating with two countries in Latin America for an edition planned for the first quarter of 2026. "Not that it was part of the original plan, but more due to the recognition of its evolution and the way people internationally perceive it, today I have the clear goal of making Chefs on Fire the biggest festival in the world by 2030," concludes Gonçalo Castel-Branco.