The Argentine craft of cooking over live wood fire and embers — from the parrilla grill and asador cross to clay, ash and infiernillo — rooted in the gaucho estancias of the Pampas and Patagonia.
Argentina is the home of asado, where gaucho estancias slow-cook whole lamb on the iron cross and Francis Mallmann turned seven kinds of fire into a discipline studied worldwide.
BirthplaceLiving sceneMeccaNamed mastersHeritageUnbroken lineageUruguay grills more beef per head than almost anywhere, and the wood-fired parrillas of the Mercado del Puerto are a living school of the asado craft.
Living sceneHeritagePanzano's celebrated butcher Dario Cecchini grills bistecca alla fiorentina over oak coals, the European counterpoint to the Argentine open-fire tradition.
Living sceneNamed mastersI'm Arnaud. I cook for a living, and I've spent fifteen years on the water — so I know the difference between a real school and a good-looking website. I built the Atlas because I got tired of the second kind. Here is what a place has to clear before it goes on here, and what I'll tell you straight when it doesn't.
If a place dodges these, that's your answer. It costs you nothing to ask, and it tells you everything.
This is the short version. The full method is here — the six questions, in order, for any craft anywhere.