BUENOS AIRES — In the busy kitchen of El Baqueneo restaurant in Buenos Aires, two chefs join hands to create a gastronomic experience.
Brazilian cook, André Mifano and his Argentine peer Fernando Rivarola are putting together fermented vegetables and fresh leaves on a freshly picked trunk.
This original plate is part of a 10-dish fusion menu they’re preparing for 40 hungry foodies.
It’s all part of a unique project called Cooking Without Borders.
It was born in Argentina‘s capital in 2013.
Almost every month, Fernando and his partner Gabi Lafuente invite famed Latin American chefs to open their kitchen – or travel to meet them.
They get together to exchange cooking techniques, native products and ancient recipes.
This time, Mifano and Rivarola are fusing Mifano’s signature Italian cuisine andArgentina‘s meat-obsessed dishes.
The Brazilian chef brought 50 kilograms of food from his homeland to prepare an organic meal.
On tonight’s menu: tomato tapenade with pork rinds, white cabbage and apple with wild boar ham, and poached oysters on a sour beet and spinach sauce.
To the beat of American rock music and South American folklore rhythm, the team has concocted the key ingredient: a friendly atmosphere.
“I think that the importance of this is actually not only bring cooks and cultures together but minds and souls, and put this into something bigger than only one dinner. Make this something that would make people think about it,” explains Mifano.
By cooking crackling fish that Rivarola fished himself, the culinary pair are also promoting organic and sustainable gastronomy.
From a humble kitchen, Mifano and Rivarola are advocating a 100% Latin America-based flavours and ingredients.
They also want to revalue small producers’ work.
For example, the El Baqueano restaurant specialises in meat from the region.
By adding an Argentine and Brazilian touch to the dinner, the chefs see Latin America as one cultural entity.
“We look for matches. We consider that all the limits are geopolitical and have nothing to do with food or food culture or what we think of what gastronomy is, or products or absolutely nothing. So we started looking first for similarities between products and there are a lot. The most basic ones are potato across the Andean Plateau; the Mesopotamian region has a lot fruits that we share with Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil,” says Rivarola.
The Cooking Without Borders project is bearing fruit.
Rivarola and Lafuente have turned the second floor of the El Baqueneo restaurant into a photography studio.
It features images of 40 renowned chefs’ secrets in a soon-to-be-published book.
It’s Mifano’s turn to present his chef d’oeuvre: a chocolate and smoked bacon cake dressed up with Tonka beans sauce.
“Cooks used to be possessive of their recipe, their dish. They did not want to show anything. We want all the contrary. We want to open our kitchen, our house. We want people to come to Buenos Aires to get to know not only our gastronomy but also connect with other colleagues,” adds Rivarola.
“In reality, the project doesn’t have a commercial end. We didn’t do it for money. In fact it doesn’t bring any money. This is a project that is only based on the moments we enjoy,” says Lafuente.
Tonight the guests at El Baqueneo are testing a newcomer on the Buenos Aires food scene.
The Cooking Without Borders initiative puts traditional products at centre stage of the culinary experience.
Commenting on the project, food critic Maria de Michelis says Latin America is now more than a commodity producer.
“It has been about a decade that Latin America stopped looking at Europe primarily and started to look inward. This represents a very important change in our cuisine. Clearly, looking inward means looking at our traditions, our land, what our land gives us.”
Although Argentine cuisine isn’t spicy, the kitchen of El Baqueneo abounds with regional spices to blend Latin American cuisines together.
As the dinner comes to an end, Rivarola and Lafuente have a lot on their plate.
They’re heading to Mexico and then on to Brazil to share knives and kitchen with other regional chefs.
This video was produced exclusively for Associated Press on October 1, 2015. Click here to watch it.
