From Rosario to Buenos Aires with a scale in Barcelona. In Rosario he was born and lived his first 22 years. The next decade would be a roller coaster for this young chef. In Barna – between 2019 and 2020 – he worked in nine queens, a restaurant of Catalan and Argentine partners. “It was my second Stage; The first – also in Barcelona – I did it in a mass production kitchen, which supplied the beach beach bar. We made paellas, tortillas … ” Nacho He is self-taught in gastronomy- he likes to highlight that you have to cook and cook, without hurry, but without pause- and his memory brings him a roast father on Sunday and an ordinary family kitchen. No background of a chef ex officio appears among the branches of its family tree. But the taste for the kitchen was always there, germinating, until the day came when it declared passion. It ran 2018 when it moved to Buenos Aires. He had completed public relations- “You had to take a title home,” he says, laughing- and worked by covering several fronts. He tried with catering and food food, but the search to do something that connected it with pleasure, would finally end when he discovered that, without more doubt, his enormous desire and vocation was to cook. “That you love, what is done so well, isn’t you asking you to take charge?” Would say your therapy analyst. And Nacho picked up the glove and hit the leap to the major leagues. Thus, he opened Carmen -Name of its maternal great-grandmother- a pasta restaurant at the corner of Gurruchaga and the Colonel Cabrer passage in Palermo. As a couple, without children of flesh and bone, but with his Carmen – that eight -month -old daughter who grows between fishing tortelli, Gnocchi and roasted bassoon- this leonine with ascending Pisces, creates unpublished flavors and believes in his inexhaustible imagination. Create and believe, two verbs that the stars make it conjugate successfully. “And with Venus in Virgo, I am an obsessive neurotic.”
News: Consider your obsession as a secret ingredient.
Nacho Feibelmann: (Laughs) and yes. The head does not stop. I am focused all the time. Our laburo is like that, demanding to do it better and better. We are a team of 17 and I am always here. We open from Tuesday night to Sunday at noon inclusive.
News: Why pastes?
Feibelmann: Because I love them, I thought it was a good time to offer them. And I felt that the opportunity got together.
News: Fresh or dry?
Feibelmann: Frescas in majority, although we now incorporate imported dry for carbonara or pepe, because they grab the sauce better.
News: Always the super dente?
Feibelmann: To the dente. Although so al dente … it depends on the client.
News: But don’t you feel betrayed if you are asked for very soft noodles?
Feibelmann: That was the first month and we were accommodating. For example, I said: “We are not going to offer grated cheese. A fish stuffed paste does not go with cheese. ” But people ask for cheese and give cheese! Why aren’t we going to give you if they come to consume the restaurant?
News: Is your job to put your hand or have your brigade for that?
Feibelmann: I take care of the letter, I propose a recipe, the boys think … I like to work as a team. But what are author pasta are mine.
News: Carmen is a pastifice and salumeria. And in fact it is the trend. Explain it.
Feibelmann: My logic is that all fillings pass through a kamado, through a grill, through a roast, a smoked. For example, I like to take an ingredient and enhance it. I prepare some spiral positions, such as a nest (spinning it) and inside it goes smoked sweet potato with mint, butter, nuts … it is another flavor.
News: Any flagship dish?
Feibelmann: The Ahumado Surubí Tortelli. Because I am from Rosario, I was born fishing – which did not do in my family – and we always have everything very slow. As Francis (Mallmann) says, a lot of fire, a lot of height and time. Time and patience are so important in this. And we roasted the fish to make cakes, empanadas … We had plenty of golden or vogue, we made a stir -fry and had a filling. We were going to fish Gaboto, near Rosario. And there was a Restorancito, Puerto Gaboto, where we prepared all this. Sorrentinos de Pacú, unforgettable!
I planned to stay in Spain for some years, to gather some euros and return to put a pizzeria. But he returned when his dad had a heart attack and died. In this instance – while they spent months with procedures and accompanying his mother as an only child – he felt that his place was in Argentina and cooking. “Because the roast smell is only here and I prefer the quilombos I know. And although Rosario is my place, I also threw root in Buenos Aires and here I am … one discovers why he left when he returns. The most common is going to seek an economic future, but I think there are other mixed issues. And returning is beautiful, with everything that is difficult, ”he says. We are in Carmen’s Deck, on the sidewalk. People pass and greet each other. “I love neighbor’s life and this neighborhood,” he says. Although it is seen simple, he was summoned as a guest chef to the Duhau Palace along with Carmen’s team, for the Food & Wine Experience. And for many, he is remembered for his participation in the latest edition of Masterchef Argentina.
News: How is your audience, what guests do you attend?
Feibelmann: Tourists, many Brazilians, families on weekends. Young people from twenty -five. And they ask us for classic wines … I thought they would be inclined to new wineries.
News: How do you see consumption in the Milei era?
Feibelmann: There is less consumption with respect to last year. I was on site, but I saw the restaurants in the area. The inputs go up, 4 or 5 percent every month … The other day an Italian came and complained about a plate of pasta to 20 euros. I approached his table and tried to explain to him. There is no other to pay expenses and have a profit.
News: Referents who inspire him?
Feibelmann: Jordi Rocca, internationally, a genius and Argentine, Francis Mallmann. I am a fan since I was a boy.
News: Ask a little obvious, but it’s worth it. What does cooking mean in your life?
Feibelmann: I found in the kitchen a space where to express my art and my obsession with the search for flavors and service. For me the kitchen is my way of inhabiting this life, it is my alchemy, the channeling of my art.
News: What do you think of the restaurants at closed doors?
Feibelmann: I like them because they contribute to the food being an experience, more than going out to eat. Everything is so fast, that you forget to eat with time. And everything that is immersive applies as an experience. That there are people innovating seems good to me. We need people to cook and make people eat. That people consume. You have to open kitchens and work. There is a lot of rockstar …
News: In addition to cooking, you sing.
Feibelmann: And long before cooking! He was two years old, grabbed the remote control up on the armchairs and sang. He jumped everywhere with Xuxa’s songs. Then, the first thing I sang, was Nu Metal (a subgenre of the alternative metal that combines elements of heavy metal with other genres, such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge). My adolescence was that. Rosario never stopped getting good musicians. Music matters like football. In all blocks there is a bandita, a drummer reported by annoying noises (laughs) … My old woman liked singing and Dad worked with sound. And so I formed my band, Lola, who is coincidentally called as my current partner. It was in 2013 and lasted until 2015.
News: Any project?
Feibelmann: For now, all my energy is put in Carmen. Then, life surprises me. If they told me that I was going to have this restaurant when it was a GDP that hunted frogs in the trench, I would have asked in what life? But I must say that Carmen is the result of a search for more than 10 years. I did a lot to get here and choose freely what I do.
News: It does not have academic training. Was your choice too?
Feibelmann: As I told you, I did work, experimenting. In Spain it was a possible job, which served me to live. But I didn’t think it was going to be the work of my life. And being my own devil’s lawyer, I tell you that I was not very academy … I started in the IgA in Rosario, I went to three classes and I couldn’t stand. I am very restless ass for formal education. The formal moved me away from desire. You can’t miss your desire.
