Rosario, Argentina. We are talking to Itziar Aguirre, a Basque-Argentine chef from Rosario who is the only female member of the Rosario Kitchen Ideas Foundation. Itziar Aguirre comes from a Basque family and has been committed for several years to the gastronomy in her city. Multifaceted, she appears on cooking shows on TV, trained in the Basque Country, making her a true reference of the gastronomy of Euskadi and Argentina.
Her restaurant, Zazpirak Bat [at the heart of the Basque club in Rosario] offers an attractive menu and is participating until Sunday in Gastronomy Week in Rosario
How did the Kitchen Ideas Foundation in Rosario come about?
-The Rosario Kitchen Ideas Foundation is comprised of 10 cooks, among which I am the only woman. It is a non-profit foundation that began with several cooks working for the identity of the gastronomy in Rosario.
I became a part of it and have worked there for nearly a year and a half.
Where were you trained as a chef?
-I began very young, at the age of 16 I started working in the restaurant that I own today. I have worked for 20 years in the gastronomy of the city. My restaurant is specialized in Basque food, and I am a daughter of Basques. It is a family business with my mother and my sister, and I am the chef.
I studied cooking in one of the first gastronomy schools in Rosario and from there I went to the Basque Country, where I studied for a year in a cooking school. I was also in Madrid. When I returned I began studying nutrition and two years ago I received my degree in Rosario.
Since my return, I have worked in my restaurant and for 10 years I have managed the program called “Escuela de Cocina,” (cooking school) broadcast by Utilísima Satelital TV. (See Itziar's biography).
Now with the Foundation of Kitchen Ideas Rosario we are recording different programs that will air starting in June on a channel that will be called Señal Santa Fe.
A year ago, I was in the Basque Country with a master given me by the Basque Government as a representative of Basque cooking in Argentina, where I was at the Arzak restaurant as well as at another that wasn’t as heard of as much as today, but it is receiving all of the awards: Azurmendi, is owned by a young Basque cook, Eneko Atxa, who is already a world cook.
What is your restaurant like and what are you providing in particular for this Gastronomic Week in Rosario?
-My restaurant, Zazpirak Bat, aims at cooking of origin that has to do with our Basque-Argentine identity with Argentine products.
For the Gastronomic Week we have pintxos including tortilla, with potato, onion and chorizo, we will also have an Apple tart, a creamy molded mouse and another snack that we will offer croquetas with Iberian Ham and a sauce called vizcaína.
The main dish is Hake in green sauce, an emblematic sauce in Basque cooking and we accompany it with unpeeled potatoes and fresh beer. As a desert we have apple tart with cinnamon ice cream.
It is a three-course menu and we will continue serving until Sunday when the event closes. The truth is, is that we have been very-well received, it is an event that I like a lot and I am lucky to have been in this city for 20 years in a cooking career with identity, so that the people recognize you from your flavor.
(published 05-22-2015 in PulsoTuristico.com)
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