Florencia Rodríguez is Buenos Aires and Jujuy, almost simultaneously. Because she was born in Buenos Aires, but she lives in Jujuy with her husband, the plastic artist Fernando Fernández, and her children (Francisco, 18, and Amelia, 10, both “Quebradeños,” the mother clarifies), for more than 20 years. There, in the multicolored lands of the north Argentinian, she became a star chef working with Andean ingredients, her specialty.
She owns the restaurant The New Progresslocated in a corner of picturesque Tilcara, where the food is served by candlelight. His resume was enriched when he won the third edition of the 2021 Price of Baron B Cuisine Edition.
The award recognizes the best gastronomic projects in the country and was its upgrade to “cook first.” The dish that consecrated it was a rooster and purple corn tamalewith a background of kalapurca, cornfields and flowers, paired with Baron B Extra Brut champagne.
“Before arriving in Jujuy, we lived in Barracas and Fernando had been offered to go to Germany. But I stayed in Buenos Aires. He studied Political Science at the UBA and worked as a cook in different restaurants. But I had a trip to Tilcara and I went. It was 22 years ago. Of course, this place was not what it is today, with all its growth and tourist potential. But I arrived and I literally went crazy,” she tells with humor and passion to Viva.
He also reveals that he has just participated in the campaign Hello Argentina!made by Fehgra (Hotel and Gastronomic Business Federation of the Argentine Republic) together with the famous photographer Gabriel Rocca, who travels the country.
In the images, he not only showed some of his best dishes but also dared to pose, frying pan in hand, with the majestic landscapes of Jujuy behind, and in the Tilcara market with typical Jujuy clothing.
From Tilcara to the world
Installed in Jujuy, definitely her place in the world, Florencia Rodríguez left behind a childhood in Ramos Mejía and a few years in a chorizo house in the Barracas neighborhood. “Something explosive happened to me with Tilcara, it was like a call from the blood. I had really liked some places in Europe, but here I felt something deeper. I understood why food is so important. Now many chefs talk about the connection with the products they cook with, but before this was not talked about.”
-Did Jujuy change your way of cooking?
-Completely. Jujuy made me understand food from the ground up, with its wonderful market, where the producers come and you buy from them directly. It made me be more creative, I reestablished myself as a cook without following trends, I found my identity. Here there is a lot of rituality in food and every moment of the year, every season, has to do with it: from carnival to Pachamama, passing through the Day of the Dead. Each one has their specific meals.
-What were the early days like? The New Progress?
-My father-in-law rented it with one of my brothers-in-law to put a warehouse bar there. We made snacks and our craft beer. Then, when my first son was born, we reunited him with Fernando (my brother-in-law went to live in Córdoba) and then we called him The New Progress: cooking + art. We do a lot of things together with color and texture. Fernando is a great artist. In fact, his paintings are displayed on the walls, made with seeds, mud, clays and natural food dyes.
-We have worked a lot since we opened it. I practically didn’t leave the kitchen during the first years. More and more people began to come, word of the place spread; It was crazy word of mouth. I remember a time when many French people came and we served dinner at half past six in the afternoon. My food is made with ancestral products and has the techniques of the place, but I think at some point it has a connection with French food.
-How would you define your cooking style?
-What interests me most is the flavor, respecting the products around me, such as quinoa, potatoes, corn of all seasons, llama meat, goat products… I use flowers, weeds, wild leaves. I can also define my food by colors: there is a lot of pink, which I color with beet or purple walnut.
-But it is not just a local cuisine.
-It is based on the Andean product, but it has to do with the immigrations that occur in everyone’s lives. You are a lot of things all the time. I think it also has to do with my ancestors, my travels when I was a girl, my intuition, and continuing to research products. Recently I was afraid that I would be pigeonholed as “the cook who makes Andean food,” because I wouldn’t have the chance to do anything else, and then I laugh: when I cook elsewhere, I take this idiosyncrasy with me; Wherever I go, it goes with me.
-When did you start to be famous?
-The prize Price of Baron B Kitchen Edition It was very important for the outside world, but I had felt recognized for a long time. It’s very nice when your peers recognize you, but it is important that the restaurant you have works and The New Progress It worked even before the award. That gave me security. Many people were watching what we were doing, especially many Argentines and that was the most interesting thing. The stranger had already come. I liked being discovered by Argentinians, in addition to feeling the respect of the gastronomic communities that were always welcomed with us.
-Are chefs the new stars?
-There has been a gastronomic boom for quite some time and there are many talented, well-known people cooking. But for me, beyond the exhibition, it is good to open up to other things. I work with anthropologists, with women from the communities: today’s gastronomy points to something more global. Look at Mauro Colagreco: he is not only a star but he works with archaeologists, plastic artists, ceramists, refugees… When you have the possibility, you have to go further. Recognition gives you tools and you have to use them. We have to continue generating beyond recognition, it seems to me. It is more important to do, to continue generating, than the recognition itself.
-Which chefs do you admire?
-To the ladies who cook in the community or in the market. I love Dolly (Irigoyen). I admire almost all the people who have a career to which they have dedicated their lives in the kitchen, and who have created schools with their seal. They can range from “cosmic” cooks on earth to multi-award winning ones.
-Is there a lot of competition and competition in the kitchen?
-It depends on each person’s personality. But what especially happens now is that there is a lot of camaraderie among young people, who meet and plan things together. It happens to me that when I go to Buenos Aires, I see that chefs from different places meet and share ideas. They try to make everything better. Obviously, there is competition as in all areas, but there is also a lot of meeting of ideas to know how to collaborate with each other. Gastronomy occupies a lot of space today and Argentina has a lot of talent and drive.
-Did you think about massifying The New Progressset up branches?
-They asked me several times and I refused. But now there is a tip to start opening The New Progress inside. In addition to doing it in my restaurant, I cook in Yacoritea high-altitude winery in the Quebrada de Humahuaca. They are different menus, since Yacorite It is more designed for drinking wine and seeing nature. I also cook for other places in the interior of Argentina, where I put together different menus, always choosing native products.
-Where do you feel “most yourself”, Florencia?
-In The New Progressit is inevitable. It’s my base. Sometimes, in the winery there is Arnaldo, who is my head chef, a total genius, who is also a ceramist and follows my madness in the kitchen, and he sends me photos of all the dishes (laughter). I always want everything to turn out perfect where I cook. Since I travel a lot, I am putting together large teams with people who really like what they do. Being a chef is a way of life. I count a lot on Fernando, my husband, too. But I don’t do too much either because I maintain quality and I like everything to turn out well. I am very obsessive, the college gave me that: studying Political Science gives you discipline.
-Where were Political Sciences?
-Throughout. I think of cooking from the social side as if it were something “gastropolitical.” I like it when people say: “How delicious,” but I care about everything else: how I got to that food, respecting the product I work with, taking everything responsibly, understanding what we eat.
-How did the people of Jujuy take that you became a star in their land?
-The people who really know me, very well. And the producers, when we won the award, filled the entire newspaper market with the news. Others may have been angry because I wasn’t born there, even though I had a crazy grandmother. I always show Jujuy, I never changed the menu. I changed dishes, but I never strayed away from Andean food.
-What message would you leave under the plate to discover?
-The word emotion. I am very emotional. Food not only feeds and nourishes, but has to do with the spiritual and ancestral. I believe in the craft, but more so I believe that places have a soul, an identity. That’s why I close once a week, so that we can all be with our families. I like those around me to rest. A place creates you, and you create that place.
-What do you cook at home?
-What my children like: Amelia, potato cake; and Francisco, all kinds of pasta. They like tamale a lot, peanut soup and are fans of milanesas. They are from the Quebrada, yes, but cosmopolitan too.
