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Ainara Fariña / co-owner, Buenos Aires Café and Gaucho’s Steakhouse

WRITTEN BY AURORA BLANCHARD / PORTRAIT BY CHRISTINA KLING-GARRETT

Ainara Fariña, co-owner of Buenos Aires Café and Gaucho’s Steakhouse, has a deep passion for Argentinian cuisine. Born in Zaragoza, Spain, Fariña learned Argentinian cooking from her husband, who is from the province of La Pampa, Argentina. They cook Gaucho-style by seasoning meat with sal gruesa (coarse salt) or sazón (a traditional spice blend), grilling it over an open flame and finishing it with chimichurri.

“It’s all open-fire and not being scared that it’s going to be burnt because that char might change the whole flavor and make it explosive,” Fariña says.

To learn more about Argentine cuisine and culture, Fariña recommends three cookbooks by Francis Mallmann, who embraces the physical and mystical elements of open-fire cooking. Here are three of her favorites:

“Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way”

“We go back to this book because we want to show people what Argentinian food is. It’s not just a bunch of recipes. [Mallmann] introduces how he goes about it, his travels and how he cooks it, such as using la chapa. Everywhere he goes, he brings la chapa, or a piece of sheet metal, to cook on. He also uses cast iron. [He examines how] mother nature’s ingredients would be different at a mountainside than what you’d have at a riverbank.”

“Mallmann on Fire: 100 Inspired Recipes to Grill Anytime, Anywhere”

“He’ll travel to different places like Brazil, New York or Uruguay, and it will show him cooking out in the snow. This shows me in the Midwest that we can cook in the winter when we have a lot of snow. When he’s up in the mountains, a certain element is infused in his cooking because of the humidity and mistiness. That element would have its influence on the food.”

“Green Fire: Extraordinary Ways to Grill Fruits and Vegetables, from the Master of Live-Fire Cooking”

“Argentinian cuisine is usually meat, meat, meat, but this one includes fresh produce. Everything is still cooked over the fire. Though the style of cooking is cooking outdoors, you can bring it indoors. A big Argentinian thing is eggplant, sweet potatoes, corn and some other elements like cabbages. His focus is: Use what you have as a local source. What I love is roasted red peppers when the char makes it crispy on the outside.”

Buenos Aires Café, 3730 Foundry Way, City Foundry STL, Midtown, St. Louis, Missouri, 314-297-8153, buenosairescafestl.com

Gaucho’s Steakhouse, 823 Lincoln Highway, Suite 105, Fairview Heights, Illinois, 618-589-9559, gauchossteakhouseil.com

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