Inspiration: Francis Mallmann

The noise from the grill slowly begins to pitch up. The smoke sprouts and the smell of charcoal and burned wood indicates that it is time to start our barbecue.

It is a sunny spring afternoon, there is a glass of wine next to us and we get ready to put the first piece of meat on the grill. A phrase rings in my ears.

"You have to respect the first contact of the meat with the fire."

This phrase comes from Francis Mallmann, Argentine Chef who has made his flag from the fire and the grill.

I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Mallmann personally. I have spent long hours watching his television shows, I have read his books and I have eaten in his restaurants. He is a character that dazzles, not only because he has brought Latin American cuisine to a world level, but also for having a proposal and a language that interprets us when it comes to cooking.

Unlike other renowned chefs, Mallmann goes against the traditional canons of aesthetics and symmetry. For him, rusticity plays a fundamental role and distances himself from those who believe that cooking is an art.

In his book Seven Fires, Mallmann clearly explains his philosophy "I believe that many chefs and cookbooks make entirely too much harmony. Frankly it can be boring." He looks for the intense contrasts of flavor that give a taste struggle in the mouth "I adore dissonance in food" he says.

This dissonance resembles the landscapes of Patagonia in the south of the continent where he grew up. From an Argentine father and an Uruguayan mother, Mallmann always had the south of the world as his home and as his inspiration when it came to cooking.

As a chef he made a career in France where he learned the techniques that he later implemented with the ingredients of the southern cone.

Wine has always been part of his life, as he has repeatedly said, he drinks a glass of wine at lunch and one at dinner. This closeness with wine led him to buy 6 hectares of vineyards in Uco Valley in Mendoza, where he plans to soon make his own “dissonant” wines over 5200 feet above sea level.

Our barbecue is ready. I take a sip of wine. It's time to start dinner.