Belmond Reid's Palace: Madeira's First-Ever Michelin Star, Earned by Chef José Diogo Costa

William Restaurant at Belmond Reid's Palace earned the first Michelin star ever awarded to a chef from Madeira, a genuinely historic moment for the island's culinary scene and for chef José Diogo Costa, who is under thirty and returned home to Funchal specifically to translate his vision of cooking through what he calls the terroir of Madeira. Costa built that vision on experience in Michelin-starred kitchens across Norway, Portugal, and Thailand, along with creative pop-ups in Berlin, Helsinki, and Austria, before bringing all of it back to the island where he grew up.

Costa hosted a gastronomic festival dedicated to award-winning culinary talent on June 13 and 14, 2025, using the momentum from the Michelin star to bring outside chefs to Funchal rather than simply celebrating in place. The hotel's wider dining program still spans Ristorante Villa Cipriani for Italian cooking and The Tea Terrace and Lounge for a proper English afternoon tea tradition, giving Reid's Palace real range beyond William's headline-grabbing kitchen.

The hotel picked up Portugal's Leading Heritage Hotel and Portugal's Leading Hotel for both 2025 and 2026, along with World's Leading Classic Hotel in 2025, a run of recognition that reinforces just how central Reid's Palace remains to Madeira's identity as a destination. Perched above Funchal harbor since 1891, the hotel has weathered plenty of change over more than a century, and this Michelin star may be one of the more locally meaningful honors it has picked up in recent memory.

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