We are a living project that flows in different directions.
REINVENTING OURSELVES AT A FIRM STEP.
ANDRES PORCEL permanent state of metamorphosis
A state where nothing is fortuitous but instead is the conscious result of a creator who understands that order cannot exist without a bit of chaos: someone who knows that gastronomy, like all arts, needs to evolve and mature.
Andrés Porcel – Alma Mater
In his teenage years, Andrés Porcel visited restaurants from all over the country and the world, carrying with him a small notebook on which he took note of all sorts of details: he wrote about the food, of course, but also about such things as the lighting, the waiters' service, the volume of the music and the quality of the silverware, among many other items. What he saw at those restaurants was not just service, but art. Some time later, after a few years working in finance, Andrés showed his true talents by creating CHILA, a restaurant which opened its doors in 2006 after living in full detail inside its creator's mind for over a decade. Today CHILA is Andres's stage, his theater, the place where he can display his knowledge of fine dining and where he can tap into the raw talent of young and promising cooks, such as Soledad Nardelli and Pedro Bargero, the latter of whom is the current Executive Chef. CHILA is a living and ever-changing project, one that feeds off its actors, its scenes and its dialogues. It is the reflection of a creator who understands, teaches and learns while looking for his diners to live through an experience that will reach their palates, but mostly their spirits.
Pedro Bargero – Chef
Unlike many of the great chefs who began their relationship with cooking in their childhoods, sitting on stools in their mothers' and grandmothers' kitchens, Pedro Bargero felt no interest at all in gastronomy until he was 20 years old, when the need to do something with his hands, combined with a deep longing for traveling, resulted in him applying to cooking classes. He then discovered a true passion for products, flavors and techniques, and quickly built a career that took him from CHILA to the French restaurants of Mauro Colagreco and David Toutain, then to the most diverse kitchens in Europe, and then back home as Executive Chef at Andrés Porcel's restaurant. Pedro's arrival at CHILA marked a cultural break not only in the history of said Relais & Chateaux, but also in the food scene of Buenos Aires and Argentina. Pedro brings the products he works with to life by using them in new and disruptive ways, playing with texture, taste, color and perfume while designing surprising and unpredictable experiences for his diners. He is a revolutionary force whose singularity shapes CHILA'S identity one chapter at a time.
October 2020
