At the age of 12 she asked her parents to let her work during the summer holidays at a restaurant her father supplied with meat. She continued to work there until the age of 16, when she enrolled in the Santa Maria da Feira catering school.

She lived in New York, where she worked in a Portuguese restaurant (Alfama) in Manhattan for two years. She went back to Portugal and worked in 5-star hotels and a number of restaurants. 

Vieira was a member of the jury panel and teacher for two seasons on Portuguese television's Chefs Academy competition.

She now has three restaurants, all of which have different concepts: an eatery corner at the Timeout market, Zunzum Gastrobar, and the most recent, her gastronomy restaurant Marlene.