How Parrilla Don Julio Helped a Neglected Buenos Aires Square Bloom

(Fine Dining Lovers) It’s a warm autumnal afternoon in Buenos Aires, ash leaves dot the pavement and sun streams between the mid-rise buildings in the hip barrio of Palermo. At Huerta Luna de Enfrente, a sustainable urban community allotment, a small group of green-fingered neighbours are taking advantage of the amiable weather to transplant seedlings into 30-cubic-metre vegetable […]

Big interviews/global: Sofía Pescarmona CEO, Bodega Lagarde, Mendoza

(Monocle) Achieving sustainable business practices results in a virtuous circle that benefits the production process, employees, communities nearby and the planet. Sofía Pescarmona is a third-generation co-owner of Argentina’s Bodega Lagarde, founded in the country’s most famous wine province, Mendoza, in 1897. She runs the winery with her sister Lucila (pictured, on left, with Sofía), […]

Meet Latin America’s Leading Female Chefs

(Fine Dining Lovers) Well ahead of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants awards revealing its 2020 rankings, the stage had been set to be the year of the female chef. First up was Janaina Rueda of Bar de Dona Onça and A Casa do Porco in São Paulo, who picked up the Icon award; the much-coveted Chefs’ Chef prize went to Leo Espinosa of Restaurante LEO in Bogotá; Narda Lepes of Narda Comedor in Buenos […]

How a Humble Steakhouse Became the Best Restaurant in Latin America

(Fine Dining Lovers) It was a precocious 20-year-old Pablo Rivero who threw the few savings he had, along with backing from his grandmother and father, into a humble parrilla (steakhouse) that opened in a sketchy Buenos Aires ‘hood shortly before Argentina’s most devastating economic crisis unleashed its turmoil in 2001.  Today, Parrilla Don Julio tops the bucket list of almost every […]