A new food truck specialising in Portuguese cuisine has hit the fast lane.

And now Generosa’s has expanded, taking over the patio of a nearby former restaurant to create an outdoor dining area.

The business, the brainchild of Sandy Rodrigues, who hails from a Portuguese family, and chef husband Richard Phillips, launched last month.

Ms Rodrigues said: “We didn’t feel there were enough options for the Portuguese community to eat.

“We decided to do the food truck then a golden opportunity with the property we found came up. People now have an option to take out or eat in.”

The company was named after Ms Rodrigues’ mother’s maiden name and operates under the slogan “Vovo’s recipes — cooked with love”, with vovo meaning grandmother in Portuguese.

Ms Rodrigues’ mother was a baker and a seafood chef in Canada after the family emigrated there from Portugal.

The truck is based at the Bermuda Golf Academy on Industrial Park Road in Southampton, with the former East Meets West patio turned into a dining area complete with large screen TVs.

Ms Rodrigues, a veteran of the hospitality industry with a diploma in food and beverage management, said: “We had been looking for a few years for a suitable location, more in the western area from Warwick to Dockyard and they were just too expensive.

“The opportunity for the truck presented itself and it took us about a year to actually get it up and running.”

Ms Rodrigues added: “The support from the community has been tremendous, both the Portuguese community and the Portuguese-speaking community.

“It’s been way more than we actually anticipated and it’s been wonderful.”

Ms Rodrigues moved to Bermuda more than a decade ago, starting as a waitress at the former 9 Beaches resort in Sandys, rising to food and beverage manager and was later operations manager at Snorkel Park in Dockyard.

Mr Phillips was head chef at Snorkel Park and also worked at 9 Beaches.

Ms Rodrigues said that Portuguese cuisine reflected the country’s heritage as a major maritime nation — with ingredients from all over the world incorporated into its cooking.

She added: “I would say the main staples would be pork and seafood, but there is so much to Portuguese dishes and recipes. They say there are more than 1,000 codfish recipes alone.

“I think that’s where Bermudians got their codfish and potatoes from.”

Ms Rodrigues said that the couple had asked customers what they wanted and for their traditional recipes — with shrimp Mozambique, using African spice, being so popular it had been added to the menu.

She added: “People were requesting it and wee started doing it as a special, but we’ve actually added is as a staple.

“We’ve increased our menu and we’re taking a lot of suggestions from our customers.

“The first month was trial and error and learning things, what people like and what they’re familiar with.

“The Portuguese people are loving it — it’s authentic food, cooked to order the way their grandmother used to make it.”

The couple already employ one staff member, with plans to hire another to act as counter staff.