The story of Juan Gaffuri (46) is that of many chefs of his generation.
When gastronomy was not yet, as is the case today for many young people, that
first and undisputed option
when starting to think about a professional profile.
Gastronomy was what those who are closer to 50 today had learned to enjoy at home, but when it came to choosing a vocation, the more traditional careers prevailed.
Graduated from an Industrial,
enrolling in the UTN to study systems engineering
fell almost mature.
“But after a year he had only passed Ethics.
It is clear that it was not my thing”, says now the
executive chef and director of Food and Beverages of the Four Seasons hotel
, one of the most luxurious five stars in Buenos Aires.
Gaffuri is a
low-key
cook .
He is not a media man, but he enjoys wide professional and personal recognition among his colleagues here and abroad.
He won't give names – well trained in the luxury hotel school, Juan
knows well the value of discretion
– but among his friends there are several priests of Latin American gastronomy, a place he also occupies as
the leader who carried out a project that is a case study : transforming not one but three hotel restaurants into a success and making one of them, Elena,
the only hotel restaurant to be part of The World's 50 Best Latin American ranking
to this day
.
Mr chef.
With a low profile, Gaffuri has a high professional recognition from colleagues and critics.
Photo Juano Tesone
Juan speaks low and leisurely, but he was encouraged to tell his story and the story of his creatures in a book that Catapulta publishing house has just published,
Thinking about restaurants and cooking
.
And what he does in that book is also a surprise: he reveals in great detail
all the recipes for all the most famous dishes from his restaurants
.
So that he can make them a professional or even any amateur cook in the kitchen of his house.
The cover of the book that Juan Gaffuri has just published, with the Four Seasons recipes.
Photo courtesy Editorial Catapult
There's
Elena's black rice
, a superlative main that combines prawns with chistorra.
There is also the
legendary hamburger from the Pony
Line, the hotel bar, which is made with wagyu beef.
There is no shortage
of barbecue
inspired by his childhood at Nuestro Secreto, the second restaurant in the garden and where Gaffuri made
another bet at the time that was innovative
: he put a woman in charge of the grill, chef Patricia Ramos.
And the chinchulín sandwiches
from the banquet service have their place
, a bite for which he was inspired by the years he worked in Egypt.
“Breaking those secrets makes one and one's place.
It is that in the end there are no secrets
: everything is in the hand, the passion, the dedication that not everyone has, the product that you use... I am not afraid to share the secrets of a recipe or a process because
I you have to carry it in your blood to make it a success
, ”says Gaffuri.
The young man who kept his promise
When his career as a systems engineer was not prospering, Juan had a talk with his father: "What do you plan to do with your life?" Juanjo asked him, whom the chef defines as the "great organizer of family events."
There the option of studying cooking at The Bue Trainers appeared.
And in that magic that Juan learned as a child in the
big meals that his father organized
for him every time they returned to Rosario -he was still a baby when the family came to Buenos Aires for his father's job at Cargill- he began to glimpse the future of him
The hamburger that Gaffuri created for the Pony Line, one of the most famous in the city.
Photo courtesy Editorial Catapult
In food as
entertainment and service
, and in food as
pleasure
, what he learned from his grandmother Dolores, the one who taught him to eat frogs, octopus and snails as a child.
"She was responsible for expanding my palate and for me to become a cook," she wrote to him in the dedication of her book.
Gaffuri graduated, did several internships, began working in different hotels in Buenos Aires and in 2000, at just 20, he entered the hotel -which was then the Hyatt-- as a cook.
"When I started,
I decided that he was going to be the executive chef
of this very hotel," Gaffuri now recalls.
He kept his promise, but before that he came a long way.
He thanks Rebeca Selley, former general manager and his mentor, for the opportunities she gave him and led him to work in hotels and to the Four Seasons chain in the United States, Mexico and Egypt, where he continued training in products, cultures and
also , customers
.
It's hard to get names from the figures he cooked for and the eccentric orders he had.
"These people who spend their time traveling have to have a very organized diet," Gaffuri demystifies.
Did she ever attend to anyone that she admired much?
"I'm just a fan of Rosario Central
," he bursts out laughing.
Elena's lounge, the restaurant led by Gaffuri and is the only one from a hotel in the 50 Best Latam.
Photo Fernando de la Orden / File
In Egypt, he received the country's president several times, he also attended the prime ministers of Spain and Canada, King Felipe of Spain, Joe Biden when he was Obama's vice president, Queen Máxima, the members of Metallica...
Only one anecdote has details.
When Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez were staying at the Four Seasons Buenos Aires at the same time.
“There was security throughout the hotel and inside the kitchen, they watched what you did.
Meanwhile,
Fidel Castro walked through the halls and took photos with the employees
, ”he recalls.
--In the case of these leaders, does the person in charge of security try the food first?
No, that's a myth.
But yes, the security people don't eat all together.
They eat at different times in case someone does not like the food that there is always someone on duty, a possible plan B.
The Elena Phenomenon
In 2011, Guadalupe – Gaffuri's wife, whom he met working at the hotel – was seven months pregnant with Ignacio, their first child, when a job opened in Buenos Aires.
It was the perfect opportunity to return and for the professional challenge that appeared to the chef.
Ali Albw, the Arab owner of the hotel, wanted to face a comprehensive reform.
And the axis was, precisely, the gastronomic service.
Contrary to popular belief, restaurants are not a big business for hotels.
Tourism is always tied to seasonality – there are high and low seasons – and tourists usually go out to eat because they want to see the city.
So, to gain profitability,
the equation had to be reversed
.
What they did at the Four Seasons was to think of a model that would be attractive to tourists but also to the local public.
It was a half court goal.
Today, 80% of Elena's audience and 90% of Pony Line are Argentine.
Aged meats, one of the emblems of Gaffuri's cuisine.
Photo Fernando de la Orden / File
“We worked from the beginning with a
clear concept
for each restaurant and bar from architectural aesthetics and design.
All the materials and textures have to do with the place and the gastronomy”, he says.
All this is complemented by a job that Gaffuri began a decade ago accompanying small local producers.
“I am happy to say that
in my kitchen there is only one imported product: octopus
.
The rest is all national.
It is a way of seeing gastronomy ”, she analyzes.
Black rice, one of the most famous dishes at Elena restaurant.
Photo courtesy Editorial Catapult
In that search, Elena became a pioneer and benchmark for dry aged, matured meat.
"I show everyone the meat maturing process without any problems and I do it aware that this will elevate my product: whoever does it will do it better than I thought they would," she emphasizes.
living in a hotel
Gaffuri spent more than half of his life in a hotel.
He says that for 26 years
he has never celebrated the New Year as a family
.
It is that in any five stars, the night of December 31 is a key date.
He is going to toast with his own to receive the year and the 1st, when the service is resolved.
Juan lived with his wife and children for six months in the hotel
.
The family has an apartment very close to the Four Seasons, where at the beginning of 2020 they had a serious problem with the plumbing.
“You had to change all the pipes and raise all the floors.
That's why the owner of the hotel offered me to come here until they fixed it, ”he says.
But in between, the Covid, the quarantine, and the Gaffuri had to stay in a hotel that, also due to the Covid and the quarantine,
had been emptied of tourists
.
Gaffuri in front of the luxurious Four Seasons Mansion.
The chef dreams of one day being the general manager of a hotel.
Photo Juano Tesone
Amalia, Juan's daughter who is 9 years old today, went out in a dressing gown to the balcony of the Alzaga Unzué mansion, the same one Madonna had gone to.
She or she played with Ignacio, who was that age at the time, through the corridors of the main tower and the security guard followed them through the cameras.
When the restrictions were eased and the work on their apartment finished, the Gaffuris returned home.
But the hotel remained closed until October 2021
.
– Were you afraid at any point that this, your profession, for which you had worked all your life, would end due to the pandemic?
No, I don't know if I thought something like that.
But the greatest weight was for all the people, the team.
The suffering of each one, who experienced it differently, with their personal and family problems.
That hit me more than anything else.
The hotel was always ready to go.
Today, with the structure in full swing, the pandemic remained a bad memory and Gaffuri continues to think of more challenges.
He says that he is not interested in having his own restaurant (“It doesn't fill me up. I need more quilombo and this is exciting"), but he reveals his dream.
Something that few chefs achieved: becoming a hotel general manager.
Controlling all that enormous machinery that he seeks for the guest to live a dream experience, the one that he, for now, is already making them begin to enjoy from the flavors.
ACE
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