Granny's Pastéis de Nata

Spend a few hours with Lisbon grannies learning the recipe behind the city's most iconic pastry: the pastel de nata. This cooking workshop takes you into a special working kitchen, a space built to bring older and younger generations together around food and combat the isolation many older residents face in a fast-changing city. As you roll the puff pastry and mix the custard, you hear stories from your hosts about growing up cooking in Portugal and the life lessons they've learned. While the original recipe for the pastéis is kept secret by institutions like Pastéis de Belém, the city's pastry shops have since developed their own versions — and so have these grandmothers. Inspired by techniques picked up over decades of home cooking, they show you how to whip up your first batch of Portuguese custard tarts. You leave with a recipe card and plenty of advice on bringing a taste of Portugal into your own kitchen.

It's rare to find places where young and old generations meet these days, but projects like this are striving to close that gap. Beyond hosting cooking workshops, Susana and her team have created a shared living space where grandmothers are invited to be themselves, tell their stories, and connect with people well outside their usual generation. The pastel de nata here is really just the excuse to gather — what you're actually here for is the exchange. You have real conversations with the grannies as you cook alongside them: about their lives, what growing older in Lisbon has taught them, and the wisdom that only comes with time. You're invited to share your own stories too — the exchange runs both ways, and everyone leaves having learned something from someone a generation apart. You end up around the table, tasting the custard tarts you made together over tea, and who knows — you might even leave with an adopted grandmother.

This experience is hosted by Susana and Ângelo, co-founders and mentors of the social non-profit A Avó Veio Trabalhar. Susana is a designer and Ângelo a psychologist; together they built the kitchen as a space for older and younger generations to meet, working from the belief that everyone has something to offer, whatever their age. On the day, though, it's the grandmothers who take the lead — you'll spend your time in their kitchen, cooking under their guidance and hearing their stories firsthand.

Comfortable clothes for cooking, and a camera or smartphone to capture the moment.