Ravishingly modern, with a rogue touch and an avant-garde and unusual way of understanding gastronomy and, specifically, Argentine grill.
These are Germán Sitz and Pedro Peña, the chefs who hide behind the Niño Gordo restaurant in Buenos Aires, but also five other establishments with which they flood one of the busiest streets in the Palermo neighborhood.
Night falls in the Buenos Aires capital and trendy venues and restaurants begin to open their doors on Thames Street.
Among alternative design stores and signature cocktail bars, there are a series of establishments that stand out from the rest, attracting attention for their aesthetics and concept.
Meat and embers are the trails that guide much of the Thamesis Group's proposal, with Sitz and Peña at the helm, who have managed to turn around the product and the quintessential technique that define the Argentine country: the grill.
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Secret ingredient: fire
Around 1900, fleeing anti-Semitic violence in Tsarist Russia, hundreds of Jews settled in La Pampa, a rural area in central Argentina populated by gauchos, the local cowboys.
“No one came from the countryside, everyone had a great education and they realized that if they didn't create a community they were going to die.
This is how the cooperatives and the figure of the Jewish gaucho emerged, the mixture between the cowboy and the immigrant who adopts and learns local techniques applied to his knowledge in other areas,” explains Sitz.
Germán Sitz's grandparents come from this descendant of Jewish gauchos, who obtained land in this area within Patagonia and began to establish the cattle ranch 130 years ago that has become their supply center today.
The cook Germán Sitz with the cattle.
Image provided by the establishment Fat boy.
“Ten years ago I opened the La Carnicería restaurant with Pedro [Peña] in the Palermo neighborhood, an area of Buenos Aires that has nothing to do with what it is today.
Palermo was always a marginal neighborhood full of thugs,
thugs
and thugs and it was there, two blocks from the capital's red light district, where we opened our first store.
We chose that area because it was cheap and the place was an old taxi grill open 24 hours a day.
We wanted to do something with my family tradition of meat and we were fascinated by the different formats of cooking over the fire.
We both came from working in avant-garde restaurants and had no training in traditional cuisine, so we created a different grill, with traditional ingredients, but a much more personal look,” says Sitz.
The care of their animals, the traceability of their livestock and a modern and updated way of working turned around a restaurant concept that is felt in each of their premises: Argentine barbecue, a concept that defines both the technique and open fire like the traditional Sunday gathering at which it is served.
Given their success, they thought of other concepts with which they could continue hand in hand with their grill philosophy, but also the total use of all the resources of their livestock.
This is how Chori was born, a choripanería that elevates this street food considered the national
fast food to another level: “We took one of the most emblematic products of our cuisine and, making our own chorizos, blood sausages and sauces, as well as
veggie
options
and for celiacs , and we present it in our own way allowing us to take advantage of other parts of the animals.”
As in many countries, migrations have led to fusions of unique cuisines.
Starting in 1956, Korean migration began to arrive in Argentina and settle in their own neighborhoods.
Closed ghettos where culture, history and gastronomy remained intact to the reality of the rest of the country.
“After a trip to Spain where we began to see the mix of local products with Asian flavors and techniques, we began to delve deeper into the Korean gastronomy of our country and its way of working the Korean grill,” says Sitz.
This new vision of the Asian grill is what led his partner and friend Pedro Peña to travel part of the continent to delve deeper into the cuisines of Korea and Japan, leading to the opening of Niño Gordo, a restaurant where Asian techniques are put into practice. at the mercy of Argentine meat to offer diners a trip through the East with local products.
Interior of the Fat Boy.
Image provided by the establishment.Ornella Capone - Photography
“Niño Gordo was born from the need to see that Asian gastronomy was creating a
boom
in the world and in Buenos Aires there was no place that brought together all its cuisines.
Although there were restaurants in the communities that were settled in the city, it was very difficult to access them," explains chef Pedro Peña, adding: "If or if we had to follow the path of fire, remain linked to the grill, to the meat, the Germán field and the producers, maintaining the philosophy of our previous establishments and fusing Asian cuisine with Argentine cuisine.”
His trip through Asia stopped in Vietnam, Korea, Japan, China and Thailand to learn first-hand about local cuisine but also to cook in some of the establishments on the continent.
Peña wanted to smell, feel and eat real Asian cuisine, in addition to being inspired for the design and structure of the restaurant - all the designs are the work of the chef - which, from the street, impacts with the figure of a great child.
Germán Sitz and Pedro Peña.
Image provided by Niño Gordo restaurant.ChuRk
The menu of this
izakaya
, which is nothing more than a journey through the flavors of Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai cuisine, is full of local references through its products.
A clear example is the
katsusando
made with brioche bread instead of
shokupan
and steak instead of pork.
Sweetbreads with miso and corn, another of those dishes where the local flavor and Asian inspiration are present.
But also the cocktail bar where there is a fusion of Asian flavors and aromas focused on the
tiki
method - a cocktail method with a Polynesian touch - in addition to the use of liquors and distillates from Asia such as
sake
,
soshu
, liquor with bamboo extract, distilled Ginseng root,
makgeolli
or Japanese whiskey.
This way of understanding contemporary grilling, with local raw materials and traveling techniques, is what has made them enter this year in the first edition of the Michelin Guide of Argentina as a recommended restaurant.
Katsu Sando as Fat Boy.
Image provided by the establishment.
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