'My Portugal' is our newsletter series celebrating Portuguese culture through conversations with friends of Portugalia Marketplace. This month, we are highlighting Breana Killeen, Associate Editorial Director of Food at Food & Wine.
Breana Lai Killeen is a chef, registered dietitian, and farmer who leads food content across Food & Wine’s print and digital platforms, helping home cooks discover recipes, techniques, and ingredients that make everyday cooking more delicious. On her Vermont farm, she raises chickens, cows, and turkeys, bringing firsthand agricultural experience to her editorial work. Currently living in Matosinhos, Portugal with her family, she is exploring the country’s food traditions, markets, and wines. Her work reflects her Chinese heritage, culinary training, and belief that great food connects people to culture, community, and the places they call home.
Portugalia Marketplace: You are not Portuguese but rather stumbled upon the language somewhat accidentally. Can you tell us the story of your first entry point?
Breana Killeen: Twenty years ago when I was accepted to college, I decided to continue taking Spanish at the University level because it was the language I had been learning in high school. I placed into a level 4 Spanish at Emory, but when I arrived, they had lost my Spanish placement exam.
I had two options — start at the beginning in Spanish 1, or as my advisor said, take something similar like Portuguese. I opted for the latter, and found myself in the most joyous Brazilian Portuguese class. It was the first time I was learning a language purely for fun and I loved not only the language, but also the culture and history, and so I minored in Portuguese as a foil to my neuroscience major.
My class visited Portuguese restaurants, learned about the importance of cod and how it allowed for the Portuguese to sail all over the world once they learned to salt it, and how Portuguese pasteis de nata ended up in Macau, the island across from Hong Kong, which is where my dad was raised.
PM: When did you first visit Portugal, and what was your first impression of the regions you saw? Twenty years later, what made you want to move to Porto with your family?
BK: After college, I moved to London to attend culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu. I was dating a wonderful Brazilian guy, who also came to London to study international business. Since flights were so reasonable and we could speak the language, we traveled to Portugal three times over the course of the year. We visited larger cities like Porto, Lisbon, and Faro, but also stopped into the smaller towns as we drove around.
Ten years later, the Brazilian and I didn’t end up together, but I visited Portugal with my now husband and he too fell for the Portuguese charms. Great seafood, warm and friendly people, historic preservation, and the port wine. When it came time for my husband’s sabbatical from the University of Vermont, we decided to go back to Portugal, and specifically, Porto.
Our first priority was finding an international school for our 5-year-old twins as they’d be starting kindergarten. After applications, visits, and interviews, they were accepted to Colegio Luis International de Porto, also known as CLIP, and we set forth figuring out where we would live in Porto.
Because we knew we’d be centered around the school, we visited areas within a 20-minute walking radius, and where we landed was Matosinhos, which is famous for where all the fish and sardines come in through the port.
PM: How has Portuguese cuisine shaped your career as a food writer and editor, if at all? How do you see Portuguese food's place in the American culinary landscape right now?
BK: Portuguese cuisine is focused on fish, potatoes, soup, bread, olives, and cheese. There is a lot of pride in the ingredients and the dishes, but equally important is the focus on eating meals together and not being rushed when doing so. Everyone’s welcome to lunch and dinner, but don’t expect a fast, complicated meal. The food is meant to be jovial and enjoyed by all. Coffee, which in Portugual is almost always an espresso, is almost mandatory, as is the vegetable soup prior to the main.
Our twins get an hour for lunch everyday and there are 4 different options for their meal, as well as the soup. There’s always a meat option, fish option, vegetarian option, and lighter option, but what strikes me the most is that it’s a proper meal. If they offer pizza, it’s homemade with broccoli, olives, and potatoes. Bacalhau for lunch is common, as is salmon, sea bass, or pork cutlets. Honestly, I wish I could pick from their cafeteria everyday because it’s homestyle, but varied.
Restaurants don’t open for dinner until 7pm, and most don’t really get going until 8 to 8:30pm. There are often generations of people at the dinner table, as well as many languages spoken. The bill doesn’t come until you ask for it because the hurry is left up to you.
As a food writer and editor, I’m less focused on the specific individual dishes in Portuguese cuisine as the push towards a multi-course, wine-paired, affordable meal as the norm. In the U.S., we focus on convenience, speed, trends, and food as entertainment and status. Portugal has forced me to slow down and focus on high-quality, local ingredients prepared in traditional ways enjoyed with friends and family. I hope to be able to infuse a little more of that into the food content I’m producing at Food & Wine.
PM: As someone who came to Portugal by choice rather than heritage, are there aspects of food culture (grocery shopping, dining out) that you have integrated into your more ‘American’ routine since moving?
BK: We live across the street from a large Pingo Doce, which my brother-in-law called, “better than his Bethesda Whole Foods.” While I’m not sure I would go entirely that far, I will say that we buy our bread daily, our milk every two days, and only purchase what we can carry since we don’t own a car. The kids park their scooters next to the security guard and almost entirely know how to navigate buying everything we need for dinner and breakfast the next day. Yes, we shop more, but we also waste far less and we eat very fresh food.
We also eat out at homestyle restaurants far more than we ever have. Yes, we’ll go to Michelin-recommened restaurants occasionally sans kids when we need a date night out, but we far more often go down to “fish row” which has restaurant after restaurant on a single street located across from the seafood port. The seafood comes in directly from across the street and we’ve become regulars at two restaurants.
PM: What is your favorite Portuguese dish to eat and/or to make?
BK: My favorite Portuguese dishes are grilled robalo (sea bass) and lula (squid) grilled over the hot coals with azeite (olive oil), tiny black olives, and lemon, served with garlicky, herby potatoes and a cold glass of vinho branco maduro, or mature white wine. So simple and fresh, but simply delicious.
To make, I’ve become a bit obsessed with Portuguese vegetable soups. They’re typically vegetarian, but I make my own chicken stock so I cook the vegetables with the stock before pureeing. I typically make a carrot, zucchini, cabbage, or squash soup and we eat it all week.
Follow Breana's Portuguese adventures and look out for future articles and contributions in Food & Wine!
