When Paul Rivero Opened Don Julio He was only 19 years old, he came from an Argentine middle-class family that suffered the ups and downs of a country that never ends up on its feet and, as the son of producers, with meat in his DNA. This is how Don Julio was born, the Palermo grill that over the years would come to position itself as one of the best restaurants in the world and would reach first place in the 50Best Awards that recognizes the best restaurants in Latin America. Almost two decades later, El Preferido reopened a block away, a 1952 restaurant with immigrant-inspired dishes with a Buenos Aires heart, classics revisited and underpinned by a great product and the passion to finally build a national culinary identity. He also set up an urban garden that produces food that is donated to different kitchens and that became a meeting place for the residents of Palermo where it is common to see his mother, pruning and feeding the compost.
News: Did you dream of a present like this?
Paul Rivero: One projects and fantasizes and then things happen, sometimes more and sometimes less, but for me the expectation is to have the chance to give everything. Definitely, Don Julio is and will continue to be a neighborhood grill, everything around is transitory. We are changing, doing new things, small on the outside but very internal and very strong inside.
News: Should we understand what we are in gastronomic and cultural terms?
Rivero: Yes, we owe ourselves a thorough debate on the various culinary colonizations that we have. The kitchen is what a town does with the elements that its landscape gives it, what man takes and makes his own, that is his kitchen. There are very interesting aspects of gastronomy based on culture and development, of what happened and will continue to happen that we are not talking about. We have super fertile ground to give that debate.
News: The big question always ends up being if there is an Argentine cuisine
Rivero: There are two very important Argentine cuisines, the first is that of the environment, that of our culinary landscape, that of the land, which is the grill and responds to this “every bug that walks goes to the grill”, that is our kitchen . Then we have the kitchen of immigration that is nourished by that culinary landscape and finally the regional kitchens that are perhaps the most authentic.
News: As Argentines we always seek to validate what we do with Europe or “the first world”…
Rivero: Yes, that is why it is so important to have culinary sovereignty.
News: And how is it achieved?
Rivero: Opening the debate, the kitchen is the permanent interpretation of a culture that is alive, the kitchen is that painting that moves from generation to generation all the time, we must declare culinary sovereignty, become independent from the gaze of those who think that a kid from 25 or 30 years old you have to reproduce a dish as it was a thousand years ago in Europe.
News: How did the two years of the pandemic go?
Rivero: It came in very handy in terms of personal growth, Difficult moments are very interesting to reflect on, to temper oneself, to question oneself deeply, it is a learning moment, it was a great lesson for all of us, we have a strength and an ability to adapt, resist and move forward that perhaps we did not have registered. I saw a lot of solidarity. Of course there were also things that were not good but in general I think it brought us closer to each other.
News: How have you coped with this time with restaurants closed and many people depending on you?
Rivero: It was very brave, the big boats when they go well are strong but when it gets complicated they weigh a lot, it was a monumental challenge, we took them forward with a great team and I’m happy. In terms of finances, for many years things went very well for us and that gave us the chance to endure, but in any case, Don Julio is a family project and I would have continued there because it is my life.
News: Wasn’t there a plan B?
Rivero: No, it’s only forward. I do what I like and what I want to do regardless of whether it goes against my economy or what others like. This is how my parents formed me and this is how my life shaped me.
News: It was all or nothing!
Rivero: A restaurant is pure desire, it is nothing more than that, the rest is all complementary, it is a job that is too sacrificial, too intense and demanding to be done without passion. In addition to the desire to progress and grow, it is also the desire that people eat well, that they enjoy themselves, that the one next to you learns.
News: What are the next projects?
Rivero: Our idea as a group is to develop a culinary district here in Palermo, we have Don Julio, 100 meters away is El Preferido, 50 meters away is the butcher shop, opposite is the urban garden and soon we are going to open a new restaurant, we want to create a place where we are happy. Today there are 160 people working here, a small community and the idea is that this continues to grow.
News: It also has a project underway in New York
Rivero: Yes! We are super embarked, it will be a classic Argentine grill, as we like it, we estimate to be able to open at the end of the year, it is a great challenge and we have many illusions. I want the Argentinean who is outside to feel represented with that restaurant.
News: What do you imagine for the future?
Rivero: We want this district that we are putting together to continue to grow and improve the place around us.
News: How would you like to be remembered?
Rivero: It may sound unpleasant but the only ones I want to be reminded of are my children, my friends and the people in my neighborhood, my neighbors for them I am Pablo, I would like to be remembered as someone who did something for the neighborhood, but as just another neighbor, I have no other claim than to enjoy myself in my world of four blocks.
News: Live and work within a 6/7 block radius, do you ever disconnect?
Rivero: Yes, I really enjoy being with my children, they are already 17 and 14 years old, they are the center of my life, everything else is secondary.
News: Party for gastronomic?
Rivero: They like it because it’s what dad does but they’ll choose what they want: the only thing that is not allowed is to have a bad time.
