In the beginning of 2012, José Avillez opened the fully renovated Belcanto Archived 2017-11-18 at the Wayback Machine winning a Michelin star that same year.
His cooking style, contemporary and Portuguese-inspired,[3] has earned him several national and international accolades, including 2015's “Chef of the Year” by WINE magazine.
José Avillez graduated in Business Communication at Instituto Superior de Comunicação Empresarial (ISCEM Archived 2016-07-21 at the Wayback Machine), with a thesis on the image and identity of Portuguese gastronomy.
He worked with José Bento dos Santos, Portugal’s most eminent gastronome, at Quinta do Monte d'Oiro, and took private study lessons with Maria de Lourdes Modesto, the “mother” of Portuguese traditional cooking.
In 2005, as the result of his work and of a presentation dinner which he prepared at Hotel Bristol in Paris, he was named "Chef d'Avenir", by the International Academy of Gastronomy, a group of more than 40 representatives of countries from all over the world.
In August 2016 he opened Bairro do Avillez, in Chiado, Lisbon, with different concepts: Mercearia (gourmet deli), Taberna (tavern) and Páteo.
[10] In May 2018, on the date of 1998's Lisbon World Exposition anniversary, he opens Cantinho do Avillez in Parque das Nações (the exhibition's site).
In March 2019 he opens the Portuguese-Asian restaurant Rei da China Archived 2019-06-04 at the Wayback Machine, in Chiado, Lisbon, a partnership with Argentinian chef Estanislao Carenzo.
In January 2020, in co-authorship with Ana Moura and António Zambujo, José Avillez opens Canto, offering a Portuguese-inspired menu followed by a musical performance.
That same year, he contributed for the book A Boy After the Sea 2, by Kevin Snook, alongside Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller, and Daniel Boulu.