Mar del Plata. City of Buenos Aires. Mendoza. Francisco Rosatwhich started and established itself from seafood cuisine on the Argentine coast, is like an octopus. A couple of months ago it opened its most recent location, Squidfor which he partnered with Alejandro Vigil, in Cuyo land. Before, he had already arrived on Buenos Aires soil with Mare by Fran.
At the age of 15 he entered the kitchen of a family friend’s restaurant and began peeling potatoes to observe the world of vapors, fires and smells. He decided very early on that he wanted to inhabit that universe, just like his maternal grandparents, who were cooks. She ignored her mother, who held her head tightly when she told her that gastronomy was her destiny: “Don’t tell me that you are too.” She had the memory of seeing her parents go bankrupt in one of the many Argentine crises. Today the woman is proud of the determination of her son who, after high school in his native Mar del Plata, grabbed the set of knives and recipe books that his grandmother had given him and settled in Buenos Aires to study at the IAG. It would be a first stopover that would be followed by Bilbao, Barcelona, Tenerife, among other destinations. Until 2019, he came to spend the holidays and stayed. On his Instagram he gives a declaration of principles: “Life is something you have to bite into and in every mouth it has a flavor,” a phrase from a Spanish song that talks about arriving at a place and having to invent yourself.
News: As a gastronomic entrepreneur, how do you continue expanding in the midst of the crisis?
Francisco Rosat: It’s very difficult, very difficult. I am still relatively young and I am learning to be an entrepreneur. Like when I made Mare, in Buenos Aires, with Pablo and Felipe Lorre, the owners of La Parolaccia, who for me are number one in creating a gastronomic business model.
News: What is the most difficult?
Rosat: What is most difficult is human resources, making people and forming a team because you have a lot of turnover. At Lo de Fran I have a solid foundation since it started. But it happens to me with the vermutería (Sin nombre), which is a business that is two years old and had an almost total turnover of personnel. I find all that difficult. Also find an operational manager to delegate, something fundamental in being able to grow and being a little bit everywhere.
News: It must be a challenge because it is still his name that is at stake.
Rosat: Yes, look, I’m going to tell you something personal: when Pablo and Federico came they wanted to do something with Lo de Fran and I said: “No, Lo de Fran is mine, I’ll sign the letter as if I were an international boss,” and that’s how Mare by Fran came out.
News: He opened Lo de Fran at 27, in 2019, very young.
Rosat: Very young and the difficult part was assimilating very rapid growth. First it was called La Cantina de Fran, because I set it up with a partner, but a week later we separated and I called it Lo de Fran.
News: How did you survive the pandemic?
Rosat: The first year was very good, with a small structure, very good word of mouth and a lot of press. It exploded quickly and then the pandemic came, which was a slowdown, but it grabbed me without debt, with a careful product, which was not for delivery. So I took out some loans, but I had a healthy business and with savings, with that I survived. I knew that when they let me open, I was going to have revenge, that people were going to choose me again. And so it was: when we opened, people responded. It was starting again. Then I started a business on the beach called Jaya Refugio, two summers, it was part of learning to do things when you get busy. And it worked, but it was too much effort. It served me financially, but one weighs a lot of things and I arrived dead at night at my restaurant. Then the Buenos Aires thing happened, Mare by Fran, and the following summer I opened the vermouth bar Sin nombre, in Mar del Plata.
News: What prompted you to decide to have something of your own in Argentina?
Rosat: I was comfortable in Europe, but I felt like I wanted to do something for myself, do my own thing. And in this matter of doing my thing, it just happened that my family is dedicated to fishing and my proposal was for the sea. I came to spend the holidays in Argentina, my ex-partner convinced me to stay and put something together. I was about to go to China, to Shanghai, but I didn’t really know what I wanted, although I knew that I didn’t want to return to Tenerife, where I lived. And in this interim I signed the contract for the premises that today is Lo de Fran. Without being very convinced if I was doing the right thing, but I saw this opportunity in the port, in a strategic place because it had been the legendary El Viejo Pop, which is a classic restaurant in Mar del Plata. When I separated from my partner, I was filled with questions, but thank God, word of mouth was very fast and there were people, like Ernesto Lanusse, who helped me a lot. I always like to continue learning and today I have to leave the cook aside, even though I continue cooking, to move on to another side and also be able to see numbers.
News: Do you enjoy being inside the kitchen or outside more?
Rosat: I enjoy being in the kitchen, but I always told myself that the day I don’t feel like being there, I’d give up everything. What happens is that if I don’t delegate and don’t get out of the kitchen, it’s very difficult for me to continue growing.
News: In the abrupt growth, did doubts appear?
Rosat: Yes, and today they appear too. For example, in Sin nombre, now the structure was dismantled a little, three people left and I didn’t expect it. Today people hit me, because I don’t understand them, it’s complicated. Obviously I’ve been going to a psychologist for quite some time and I do group coaching. I try to give all the tools to the group so that they feel as united as possible and I work on that.
News: Do the people on your team do coaching?
Rosat: Yes, they have coaching. Once a week, the heads; and once a month, the entire team. When I worked in hotels in Europe, we had a personal psychologist and, in turn, he worked with the team leaders. I didn’t do it during the first years of Lo de Fran. But today my biggest challenge is to be able to put together a solid structure that allows me to enjoy what I do and continue growing, but growing steadily, it is no use growing for the sake of growing or jumping into the pool.
News: What is growing steadily?
Rosat: Grow on a solid foundation, in a structure that allows you to mold yourself. I am in a moment in which I also have to know how to say no, because you receive many proposals and you have to know how to manage your time, because there is not enough time.
News: The good times and the intention to continue growing can be enticing. In that quest for more, are you wondering where to go?
Rosat: Yes, today it happens to me that I always imagine more projects or pass by a corner and say “How nice to do such a thing here!” Now I bought a property around the corner from the vermouth shop. I already imagined what I want to do there although I don’t have the resource yet. Then, you also say: “Hey, stop! How much do you want to have?” Today human resources are a very big drain, I am learning to manage it. Nothing… I try to enjoy. It’s complicated.
News: What does cooking mean to you?
Rosat: I believe that cooking is an act of love. My first memories are of my grandmothers. One lives, but the other died. An Italian and a Spanish, and in both houses, you woke up and the first thing there was the smell of food, no matter what day it was or what time it was. More so with my maternal grandparents, who were both cooks. My paternal grandmother, no, but she was tana and she cooked all day and had the garden, rabbits, chickens. I learned that when I was little.
News: How would you define your cuisine?
Rosat: My cooking is mainly based on products, that is, few ingredients. The main thing is quality raw material and handling it as little as possible. At Lo de Fran, an iconic dish is prawns that are grilled over salt and then has ajilimojili, which is like a Basque chimichurri based on garlic, vinegar and oil, but basically they are prawns. The squid are grilled with two Canarian mojos in a baked potato, but they are still squid. There’s not much mystery here.
News: Well, don’t take credit away!
Rosat: No, yes I would tell you that there is hand, but I try to treat the raw materials as best as possible, my inspiration is based on seasonal products. I think the best restaurants in the world go back to the product. I like that kitchen with little intervention, more linear, more direct.
News: Does the economic crisis impact you?
Rosat: It happens to me at the vermutería that it is a much cheaper ticket. I try not to raise prices so that everyone can come.
News: Do you still feel the loss of clients?
Rosat: Yes, because the young audience is beginning to disappear, even in businesses that were like a youth cult, which initially had that type of audience and today that audience is not there, unfortunately. We have discussed it with colleagues. It is a moment of crisis, without a doubt.
News: But he has a new location waiting.
Rosat: And well, I bought it a year and a half ago, to pay, with great emotion. Now we are in the middle of the season in Mar del Plata and with Mendoza just opened, with Buenos Aires, which in December is the best month of the year. So finishing accommodating all this that never finishes accommodating because when it seems to be there, something new appears.
