Respect for local produce and the contribution of a new vision alongside tradition formed the basis for this chef and Germán Carrizo, both Argentinians, to turn Fierro's cuisine into an Argentinian-Valencian symbiosis.  

Carito Lourenço, the first female Argentinian to earn a Michelin Star (Fierro*, Valencia), began her talk at FéminAs with a look back at the restaurant she runs with Germán Carrizo: a single table, showcooking and interaction with the diner. The trip down memory lane was no triviality. It demonstrated that Fierro is bent on "personal feeding, just like our mothers and grandmothers used to do on a daily basis". The pandemic did away with the single table, but although it now has four tables, Fierro still maintains its links to tradition, and does so, as Carito explained, with a dual focus. 

Fierro's cuisine is Argentinian cooking with Mediterranean produce. It has links to the territory and its tradition through the produce of Valencia, albeit "with our Argentinian vision, because we like our origins and tradition to form part of it". Lourenço exemplified this desire to unite the two geographic regions in three instances of Valencian produce with Argentinian recipes or techniques. 

First up was parsnip, “a root vegetable unknown to Argentina”, but a popular feature in Valencia's stews and boil-ups. “As Argentinians, we were surprised that such an original ingredient was such a humble product, and that it was thrown away after the cooking process", the chef recalls. The next step was obvious, to bring it into its own. This led to a recipe made 100% from parsnip, using all its parts, including the skin and the trunk.

It was not only unknown products that aroused the curiosity of the Argentinians, but they also found other varieties of extremely popular products in their own country, such as pumpkin, which enabled them to experiment with native recipes. Valencia's pumpkins are smaller and sweeter than the Argentinian variety, "zapallos", but Carito Lourenço did not hesitate to use it to repeat the "zaballito de almíbar" pumpkin and syrup her grandmother used to make for her. “A family recipe, to keep the dish alive”. Even on the other side of the Atlantic. 

Rice could not fail to be one of the Valencia products featured, and Fierro presents this as a sweet version. “Argentinians eat a lot of sweet food”, explained Carito Lourenço. And so the chef serves up "bizcoche" sponge in rice stock to combine cultures once again. 

With sour and sweet, traditional recipes, local produce and a fresh take on things, Fierro's cuisine "sets out to surprise diners and enable them to discover local products from another perspective".