By Silvina Baldino
Gastronomy has been center stage for a long time. And to enrich the foodie universe, new experiences are emerging: passionate chefs who generate playful encounters around a table, who invite you to disconnect from the routine and put on a little chef’s outfit.
This is how they are born cooking cycles with tasting includeda new trend that finds its maximum creativity in Buenos Aires and is spreading throughout the country.
TEODOLINA QUESADA
With the premise of uniting his two passions, teaching and gastronomy, Teodolina Quesada has given life to a space where creativity is in constant motion. ” I’ve done “hello”, which was a cooking club where I used to teach, but unfortunately it closed during the pandemic. This new workshop comes from there, from this desire to have a place of my own to share what I know. I imagined a very bright place, full of plants, like a ceramic workshop where you cook things, but where you cook ideas. A place to teach and study new things. This is how I arranged this space in Villa Ortúzar,” count the cook.
Totias her relatives call her, worked in education as an educational psychologist, but when she began to study Gastronomy at the AGIHe found his place in the world. “I felt much more at ease, with an energy that concerned me now,” he recalls.
Today, in his studio, he offers a monthly cycle with four consecutive lessons and two individual lessons that vary their themes. “The public are people who want to cook at home, and what we generate as an experience is already an added value”, he comments.
For her, the satisfaction comes from knowing that participants are taking a lesson home with them. “In the workshop, everyone cooks, everyone cuts, everyone tests techniques. You get to know the products: their origin, where to find them, how to store them, how to transform them into a delicious dish. And then there’s the time to place an order, lay out the preparations, dim the lights, light a few candles and set the table to share.
Looking ahead to 2023, Toti plans to continue his workshop in Buenos Aires, although he dreams of bringing the experience to different corners of the country.
GI: @totiquesada
FRENCH CUISINE
Franco Nesossi has given up his job as an economist in a multinational to devote himself fully to gastronomy. “I’ve always had a special connection with cooking. My grandfather was very fond of cooking and I learned a lot from him. My dream was to start a project that would make people happy, so I started doing dinner parties where I prepared delicious things for my friends and family. Some time later, I started studying at the AGIand when I finished my studies, I knew that I wanted to do this all my life,” he recalls.
Initially, Franco’s idea was to open a restaurant behind closed doors. After going through a few kitchens in Mexico, returns to Buenos Aires to develop his passion in some restaurants and caterers. But the idea of teaching was still latent. “One day, I started to cook vegetables in a wok with my mum, who is an excellent pastry chef, and I noticed that she cut the julienne roughly. I was tossing everything next to the wok like nothing happened, and then I clicked. I said: ‘I have to give lessons to people who want to cook on a daily basis’. This is how Francesco was born. I looked for an apartment in Vicente López and I started.
The first lesson was called “Discovering the kitchen”, a workshop to learn basic techniques and recipes for everyday life. Then he added to his proposal “vegetarian atmosphere”and soon after, he launched an Argentinian cooking experience for foreigners: “Pachamama – Argentinian Culinary Experience”.
In February 2020, Francesco moved its facilities to a beautiful location in Las Cañitas, in the heart of Buenos Aires, and began its expansion. A) Yes, added the workshops “Pastas a mano” and “Pastas Reloaded”, with Lucio D’Imperio, and “Levain, pizza et fainá” and “Mother bakery”, with Mauro Busquet.
By 2023, Franco plans to travel Argentina and learn about cuisine by region. “I want to incorporate traditional and authentic recipes and emphasize ‘Pachamama’, a workshop for travelers to experience first-hand the experience of cooking our classic preparations.”
GI: @francescococina
TERESA RUCCI
After working for more than 20 years as a producer on the Utilísima channel, Teresa Rucci has returned to her roots and settled in town bell to give shape to a more than desired project: to open a workshop space where cooking under the concept of healthy food. This is how in 2018 found a perfect house with a big gardena few blocks from your home.
“When I entered the house and saw its space, its windows, the vegetation, the flowers and the cherry tree, I fell in love. I knew immediately that I wanted this space to transmit my philosophy in the kitchen: live healthier,” recalls the creator of Gathering kitchen.
His workshops take place three or four times a year, last between six and eight classes and show that it is possible to eat healthy and rich at the same time. “What I’m looking for is to convey the importance of eating thinking about what we eatwithout the need to give up the flavor, taste or pleasure of this meal”.
“I cook with the best raw materials and I try to reduce animal products. Always with the aim of maintaining a balance between the pleasure of eating and the pleasure of knowing that we are eating”, develops Teresa. And he continues: “The pandemic has made us slow down a bit, take the time to cook and pay attention to what we eat; make a cake and share it with the family, contact a local producer and send him his bag or package. There is also a generation of young people who, concerned about the environment and local production, internalize themselves and want to know where the food they eat comes from. There is a new public that is consolidating and that I really like”.
Each workshop in Teresa’s kitchen is a different experience. One of the stars is the cycle “Menu of the day”: four meetings where participants can learn to cook typical dishes from other countries, from Italian, Spanish and Greek to Latin. “It’s a proposal designed so that people can cook differently when they invite friends over. And, in addition, I take the opportunity to remember these dishes that I have tasted during my travels, ”he says.
But also, given the good connection that Teresa has with the gastronomic references of other cities, in Cocina de Encuentro there is a place for workshops with guest chefs. “They were recently vikawith an Armenian cooking workshop, and Frank Rosatof Mar del Plata, with a fishing workshop”.
“Soon, Anita Ortuño will offer a festive after-dinner workshop. And two who are still there, Ale Argüello, who comes to knead the pizzas, and Santi Palma, with her classic ‘Tapas and small plates'”, details Teresa. And to conclude: “In my workshops, we try to give people an enriching experience. That people who do not know, are encouraged to cook, and those who know, cook better. Basically, that they enjoy a pure culinary encounter”.
GI: @teresarucci
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