When he was a boy his parents were traveling on weekends to work Saladillo, where they are from, and the grandmother was in charge of him and his brothers. How could it be otherwise, the lady spent cooking her and liked to help her. Surely there was created what would later become a passion for the kitchen. “But at that time being a chef was not even remotely in their dreams,” he recalls Matías Rouauxexecutive chef of Duhau-Park Hyatt Palace Buenos Aires.
When the school ended, he decided to study agronomy at the UBA while doing work in gastronomy. He reached the third year of the university, realized that the kitchen attracted him more. I wanted to have a professional horizon, so he studied the gastronomic career at the Argentine Institute of Gastronomy, then did the pastry chef and finally studied in culinary arts.
His first professional work was in Arévalo Paraje and then made school four years in Chila, under the leadership of Soledad Nardelli, where he arrived in Chief of Kitchen. He was also in Meli Melo Bistró, among other places. Eight years ago he was summoned by the Duhau Palace. He started as Chief of Kitchen of Duhau Restaurant, then he was Banquet Chef, Hotel Chef and is currently the hotel executive chef. It has under its responsibility the gastronomy of the four restaurants – Duhau Restaurant & Vinoteca, Gioia Botanical Kitchen, Piano Nobile and Oak Bar – of the events, the banquets and the service to the rooms.
On the way he supervised events at the Hyatt Regency Cartagena and the Hyatt Regency Mexico City. He always worked in gastronomy. He knows no other trade.
News: What is it like to work at Duhau?
Matías Rouaux: It’s amazing. We have a huge team, with a lot of training and training. Access to a first quality product and the tools to work well the best that is achieved in the market. And an engineering department that helps us with the maintenance of that machinery. I have the freedom to do the event that occurs to me, invite chefs outside or do an event with live stations such as the Food & Wine Experience. That is the whole positive part.
News: And the cons?
Rouaux: Being in such a place you can never lose. You always have to be the best and try to always be at the forefront. There is also the pressure that there are four different restaurants working at the same time. Perhaps there are days that we have full restaurants, a wedding of 300 people and at night an event of 250. In each kitchen I have a chef or a sous chef that manages the daily operation, but the coordination of all that is mine and it is a fairly complicated work. Actually, I don’t see it as cons, it is very difficult for me to find something negative. I would say that it is the most difficult or complicated part. I do this because I like it, I like that adrenaline. Both me and my team like luxury hospitality, we like to serve, obviously cook and make excellence.
News: What are the characteristics that someone should have to occupy a role like yours?
Rouaux: I think that leadership in the human part is the most important thing when handling teams. I have a fixed squad of 55 people plus 20 of a outsourced squad, and I am every day with 75 different stories. Learning to handle the team, listen to everyone so that everyone is well, focused on their work, feel motivated and happy to come to work, is the most difficult part. It is the one that I had to develop more to do my job well, achieve the standards and do what is expected of me. Understanding that is a fundamental aspect to occupy this role. Then, you have to have steel nerves. I cannot allow any host or customer to leave the hotel with a bad impression of us.
News: What is the imprint that Duhau’s kitchen has?
Rouaux: We work with excellent quality and seasonal products. We look for the best of the best. We do not do things so complicated, simple and direct gastronomy has much more flavor and reaches a more deep point than the recipe with a thousand steps. We understand the traceability of the products, for that we visit our suppliers, we see how we work, know the orchards and also the refrigerators, how is the transfer, where the fields are. We have a supplier that buys in the central market and we see who buys you and what provinces are these products. We try to choose development producers. These are the foundations and that combined with a motivated, organized team that knows what it makes, results in the dish that reaches our diners is the best.
News: What are the products that cannot be missing in your kitchen?
Rouaux: I put onion and garlic. Well treated are the basis for any recipe, for a puree, a soup, a sauce. In sweet, butter, butter, as the French, and chocolate say. I love to eat pure bitter chocolate. Anyway, in Gioa Botanical cuisine we have discovered a huge world of pastry without animal protein. A lot of things that can be done based on coconut oil and olive oil. Awesome.
News: What do you think of author food? Is there marketing?
Rouaux: It is one hundred percent marketing, but in turn I think we all make author cuisine, because the dishes are irreproducible in the same way twice, unless your kitchen is a laboratory. The kitchen is experimentation and a lot of things can be done and combinations and present them in different ways. In the Duhau we have a Milanese to the sausage napolitan of chorizo with bone with three different cheeses of the cava, but it is still a Milanese to the Neapolitan that we reinvent.
News: How do you cook at home?
Rouaux: In the day to day I always cook and make simple meals, Milanese with salad, cake, sauteed vegetables. Simple, but well treated. For family events or when I invite friends, I make homemade, stuffed, and roast pasta.
News: How is your family?
Rouaux: I am married to Ana Ponce, who is an actress and singer, has a cumbia band, and we have a five -year -old daughter named Malena. We met when I worked in Chila at night. Ana already knew me with this life a little crossed of the subtraction. I am super grateful to her because mine is complicated, demanding, I work a lot, and always accompanies me and knows how to understand me. At the same time, their works in works or recitals are night and weekend. We complement each other, we understand each other and accompany each other. That is a couple.
News: What do you do in your little free time?
Rouaux: I really like to train, I walk by bike and run. I love to go out with the family, we are very friendly, we have groups of friends, we like to join the wine, to chat. As a boy I played the battery, but I don’t.
News: Did you think or would you like to have your own restaurant?
Rouaux: If you had asked me ten or twelve years ago, I would have told you yes, it was my dream. Today is no longer my dream or my goal. At this time I love being in the kitchen, making menus, taking events and combining all that with the part of numbers and management. I feel that my professional career is more focused on staying in this company, growing, making hotels and traveling.
News: If I wanted to entertain someone who wants a lot, what dishes would you prepare?
Rouaux: I am very good to knead homemade pasta at home. It seems to me a super noble meal that can be combined with different sauces. In addition, the pastes are going well to drink with white wine or red wine. I would make raviololes of Ricotta, some taglialle or some pappardelle with meat stew. However, on the first event with Anita I prepared an loin with Quinoa risotto and I also made the flan of dulce de leche. It was twelve years ago and it worked very well.
