7 Argentine Chefs You Have to Know About

Francis Mallmann is perhaps Argentina’s most well-known chef, at least internationally. Those who may not have been familiar with him a few years ago might have seen him on the first episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table, where he wowed audiences with his love of fire and his wild Patagonian existence. He has restaurants in Mendoza and Buenos Aires, and is a chef you need to know for his eccentric character as well as his cooking.

Germán Martitegui is the founder and proprietor of one of Buenos Aires’ most highly regarded restaurants, Tegui. Tegui frequently makes it onto lists of the top 50 restaurants in Latin America, and its exotic dining room and excellent food make for a unique dining experience. Martitegui has also twice acted as a judge on the TV series Argentine MasterChef.

This Argentine chef runs the beautiful Butterfly Restaurant in the Patagonian city of Bariloche. Andres Lopez’s food is a mix of tradition and invention, and the dishes that are served in this lakeside restaurant are at once comforting and unusual. Using local and seasonal ingredients, he infuses his food with French and Spanish influences, remnants of his training in Europe before he decided to settle in Patagonia.

Hernán Gipponi worked in Spain, in Michelin-starred restaurants in Bilbao and Valencia, before returning to Argentina. His fame was cemented when he ran his eponymous restaurant in Palermo Hollywood’s Fierro Hotel, and after he parted ways with the hotel a few years back, he teamed up with the crew at Nana, and remains one of the leading names on the Argentine culinary scene.

Argentine chef and TV presenter Narda Lepes has more then earned her place among the best chefs in Argentina. She is the star of several gastronomy TV series and travel programs, as well as the author of cookbooks, and she even has her own line of kitchenware. She also has a new restaurant in Buenos Aires, so fans of the culinary queen can dine in Narda Comedor to experience the real deal.

The guys behind Proper have crafted one of the best dining experiences in the city of Buenos Aires. Located in a former garage, this rough and ready eatery serves up delightful plates of interesting ingredients cooked in tantalisingly tasty ways. An avant garde culinary journey to be sure, Proper is where London or New York meets South America, with a hipster vibe but local flavours.

The chef behind Buenos Aires’ beloved curry house-come-tapas bar is onto a good thing. The dishes in his restaurant, Gran Dabbang, are small sharing plates that pack a seriously tasty punch, full of exotic flavours from India and Asia. No bookings are taken, so you have to show up early, because when it’s full, it’s full. Ramon knows his way around the local food scene and is heavily involved in the Masticar food festival that takes place in the Argentine capital each year.