This class will be taught live on
December 8, 2024
from 2:00 PM ET ~ 5:00 PM ET
You'll have access a full replay
after the live class ends.
These gorgeous homemade Portuguese custard tarts come the closest to the renowned pastéis de Belém from the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém (below), where they churn out more than 22,000 pastries each day. They even top 55,000 once.
There are plenty of reasons why the original pastéis de nata from this pastry shop are so amazingly good. A centuries-old recipe, teams of artisans who do nothing but make the pastry dough behind locked doors and cook the filling, ovens that blast at 800°F.
The secrets to making spectacular authentic Portuguese custard tarts at home are few and simple.
What we'll cover:
In this lesson, we'll create these treats from start to finish.
☞ Mixing the pasty dough
☞ Layering and rolling the dough to make that perfect spiral shell
☞ Cooking the custard
☞ Filling the shells
☞ Baking to get the gorgeous brown mottling on the top
I'll pass on all the techniques I learned from pastry chefs in New York and Lisbon to help you master one of the world's greatest and most beloved sweets!
My Inspiration
When I wrote my cookbook, The New Portuguese Table, my goal was to make the fascinating world of Portuguese food accessible to an American audience. For much of 2007, I lived in Portugal, where I scoured the mainland, Madeira, and the Azores, where my family is from, learning to make classic dishes, discovering the origins of my family’s recipes, and ferreting our new, exciting recipes from today’s chefs and home cooks. All of the recipes are easy to make, easy to source, and incredibly easy to enjoy.
That philosophy of ease, authenticity, and joy is the inspiration for and foundation of this course.
Although I wrote the recipes so that it felt as if I were with you in your kitchen, you were ultimately alone. But with A Cook’s Tour of Portugal: Pastéis de Nata Edition, I’ll be by your side, cooking, laughing, and helping you to cook like Mama Leite and my grandmother Vovo Costa. Plus, you get the benefit of 15 years of learning that I acquired since I wrote the book.
Spend a few fun-filled hours with me, and you’ll be surprised at how easily you'll whip up this pastry to beat all pastries.
Together, we’ll walk through every step of making this icon sweet that you and your family are sure to love.
"Takes you right to the heart of the good stuff."
David Leite takes you right to the heart of the good stuff, scrupulously (and appetizingly) exploring and explaining an egregiously overlooked and unappreciated range of flavors and ingredients. Portugal once ruled the known world, and the recipes in this book are–in many ways–the history of the world–on your plate.
—Anthony Bourdain
"A scrumptious culinary journey."
"A scrumptious culinary journey through David’s Portuguese heritage. I have the book. I know the man. Love it. Love him."
—Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman
About Me
I’m David Leite, a food writer, cookbook author, memoirist, cooking teacher, and website founder. I’ve been all about food since I was a babe in arms. Couldn’t resist good food, can’t resist now!
I grew up in a Portuguese American family, with my parents, grandparents, and godparents living in three apartments in the same house in Fall River, Massachusetts.
My grandmother Vovo Costa, would drag a chair over to the counter, drape my grandfather’s shirt over me like a huge smock, and lift me up. Standing on the chair, I’d help her stir soups, pop fava beans out of their pods, and make the only sweet she ever baked: buttery cornbread.
And to this day, I can still taste it.
I began writing about food part-time in 1998. My first article was the cover story for the food section of the Chicago Sun-Times about filming my mom making her beloved dishes. I wrote several more times for them about the foods of the 20th century and tea.
After that, I began writing for The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, mainly about Portuguese food, such as the history of pastéis de nata or the ubiquitous hot sauce of Portugal.
About two years later, I started contributing to Bon Appétit, writing about my love affair with my Viking stove, my problems cooking goose, and traveling to Lisbon for the first time.
What followed was my peripatetic decade of contributing a bunch of publications, including:
- The New York Times
- Martha Stewart Living
- Saveur
- Gourmet
- Food & Wine
- Yankee
- Men’s Health
- Charlotte Observer
-
and others
I’ve also been a guest as well as a host on many TV and radio programs. As a food writer, cooking teacher, and Portuguese food expert, I was on:
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
- Radical Sabbatical
- A Weekends with Yankee episode, hosted by Amy Traverso
- The Today Show several times as a cooking guest
- 10 Percent Happier Dan Harris’s podcast for my memoir
- ABC’s CT Style as a regular cooking contributor
- The Splendid Table radio program for 13 years as a contributor and guest host
- NPR’s Last Chance Food
- The Martha Stewart Living Radio many times as a guest and as a guest host
- And many other cooking segments in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, Texas, Colorado, Michigan, and California, where I shared culinary tips and tricks.
Along the way, I started Leite’s Culinaria, a website and haven for food lovers. LC was the very first website to offer 100% tested recipes from cookbooks to the public. (This was looong before Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any of the social media sites.)
I'm so fortunate to have won three James Beard Awards, the Oscars of the food world. Two were for Leite’s Culinaria. In 2006, I was lucky to be the first person to win a Beard Award for a website, an honor I received the following year.
In 2008, I also won for my New York Times article, In a ’64 T-Bird, Chasing a Date with a Clam, which was about one of my all-time favorite foods: fried clams. The following year, 2009, I was nominated for a Beard award for my article about chocolate chip cookies.
Now, I’m thrilled to come into your kitchen and give you a virtual tour of Portugal that only a native can.
Come along with me as I teach you the secrets, traditions, and beauty of Portugal's favorite pastry.
Chow,
