“Fire is a hymn of silence.” - Francis Mallmann. In his documentary story, ‘At the Edge of Uncertainty’, journey with Francis to his remote island in the Patagonian wilderness. The classically French-trained chef famous for his primal open-fire cooking methods reflects on his trajectory as he enters a new introspective chapter in his life.
“Cooking with wires and string is magical. Think about it. Dream with me.” - Francis Mallmann The art of roasting the perfect chicken. Francis teaches how to make everything from simple syrup and brine to roasted chicken with pineapple, cabbage, and rescoldo vegetables drizzled with an almond honey lemoneta. Whether you’re hanging the chickens over the open-fire like Francis, or roasting it in your own home oven, you’ll learn how to make this festive and comforting dish that is ideal for the holidays or any special occasion. Join Francis in his quincho, the outdoor kitchen, as he teaches two of his seven live-fire signature cooking techniques: hanging and slowly roasting ingredients over hot embers and the rescoldo method, burning vegetables in ashes.
In Argentina, there’s a saying: “Quien sabe comer una empanada nunca ensucia el plato," which means, "Those who know how to eat empanadas will never dirty the plate." Francis agrees and explains that if you are invited into someone’s home to eat empanadas, and if anything falls on your plate, you’re never invited again. “Not a drop of empanada should be lost because it’s so delicious,” he proclaims. The empanada, a pastry similar to a hand pie or turnover, is probably Argentina’s most emblematic snack. It’s a local tradition that is typically stuffed with meat or cheese fillings. Every region in Argentina is famous for its own version, and here, Francis teaches how to make two of his favorite recipes from Mendoza wine country: baked meat empanadas with onion, eggs, and olives; and fried cheese and onion empanadas. Not only is this family-friendly dish easy to make, but it’s also the perfect meal for the kids or to serve at a party. Plus, Francis teaches how to make llajua sauce, a spic
Francis brings life to vegan cooking and teaches his daughters’ absolute favorite Christmas dish: a platter overflowing with a colorful assortment of seasonal vegetables. Learn how to perfectly choose, cut, and cook fresh vegetables on the plancha.
Francis believes potatoes are some of the most beautiful things that South America gave to the world. A symbol of the great Andes Mountains, potatoes are very special to Francis, and over his 50 years of cooking, he has developed a unique devotion to the faithful tuber. Buy yourself a big bag of papas and learn from Francis nine different ways of how to cook the mighty potato.
Learn how to make one of Argentina’s favorite comfort foods with Italian roots, the milanesa. While the milanesa is traditionally pounded thin and deep fried, Francis prefers a thick cut of tenderloin cooked bleu, or extra rare, on the chapa grill.
“The truth is that every gesture of eggs is very special, and you must respect who they are.” Francis cooks eggs with simplicity and believes that if you add too many ingredients, they will lose their delicate and simple nature. Learn Francis’s simple and delicious tricks and techniques of making the perfect fried and scrambled eggs. While there are many ways to cook fried and scrambled eggs, Francis has his preferences. When it comes to fried eggs, he likes to serve them elegantly in butter and fry them until crispy. The crispy fried eggs are then served with angelic avocado and devilish sriracha to give the dish some balance and contrast. Francis cooks two types of scrambled eggs: classic and broken. And of course, no scrambled egg breakfast would be complete without some crispy panceta on top.
“It’s always a mystery when you cook a steak.” If anyone in the world is going to teach you how to grill the perfect steak, it should be Francis Mallmann. Watch and learn from the master of meat the core principles of live-fire cooking. And no steak would be complete without a traditional herbaceous chimichurri sauce.
Argentina is heavily influenced by Spanish cuisine. It’s common to find the tortilla, a potato, onion, and egg Spanish omelette, at most every bodegón (Argentine cantina). Even though Francis has made many tortillas in his life, he says he only understood the true technique of the tortilla a few years ago when he observed a Spanish lady making it. Now, he shares this favorite tortilla recipe with you. While it’s possible to use any onions available, Francis’s secret is combining three types of onions. He also shares his tips on how to flip it and cook it to perfection.
Construction workers in Buenos Aires don’t have much time on their lunch break, so when they want to prepare a barbecue, they make a quick fire, slap a piece of chapa on top of the makeshift parrilla, and grill a thin piece of steak. In bife de albañil, or steak of the stonemason, Francis teaches how to make this wonderful and quick meat dish with bacon, avocado, and crispy sweet potato chips.
“Eggs, potatoes, cheese, ham, can’t get better than that!” - Francis Mallmann. Revuelto gramajo is a Buenos Aires classic, most commonly found across the country in neighborhood bodegones (Argentine cantinas). Francis puts his own spin on this scrambler-hash hybrid that resembles an omelette, but stays true to its original ingredients: eggs, ham, and fried shoestring potatoes. This dish, however, can be adapted to use ingredients on hand, including fresh peas and slices of chicken or prosciutto. Even though in Argentina revuelto gramajo is eaten for lunch or dinner, we bet this mind-blowing dish will be a total brunch game-changer to your cooking repertoire.
A beautiful steak dinner in under 20 minutes, you say? Francis loves to smash things, and here he teaches how to make this easy and unfussy steak, a dish that he began making over 25 years ago: Flattened tenderloin with capers, peppers, garlic, and black olives. You’ll learn how to respect the steaks’ placement on the grill and the importance of keeping it undisturbed with no “flipping and flopping.”
From Patagonia to Paris, Francis will transport you to Café de Flore, a famous café where the great intellectuals would gather and one of his favorite places in France. There, they serve glorious oeufs à la coque, soft-boiled eggs, a sophisticated yet simple breakfast that Mallmann regularly makes at home for his children. Not only does Francis teach the basics of boiling eggs, he also speaks about important life lessons like personal reinvention and how it’s never too late to start again.
All you need is three carrots, a handful of thyme, a bit of cream, olive oil, and a cast iron pan to make Francis’s latest hit vegetarian recipe. You’ve never tasted carrots quite like these.
The egg is one of Francis’s favorite ingredients. Learn how to make oeuf brouillé, a rich and delicate French-style scrambled egg cooked in a bain-marie hot water bath.
Learn how to make one of Argentina’s favorite comfort foods, the milanesa. Francis teaches his vegetarian spin on the humble classic by using the mighty eggplant. Francis teaches how to prepare the eggplant: He chars the whole eggplant directly in the fire, dips it in egg batter, covers it with seasonings and homemade breadcrumbs, and finally, pan-fries it with clarified butter on a hot griddle. The result? A delicious dish that is also a bestseller at Francis’s restaurants.
“Oh! It’s so beautiful! I love you trout!” - Francis Mallmann Francis invented the infiernillo or “little hell” oven about 20 years ago to cook fish outside. Today, he proclaims his love for Patagonian trout and its magical taste as he fires up his small inferno to teach you how to make freshly-caught salt-crusted trout. “Once we fish something or kill an animal to eat it, we must respect who he is. And try to get the best out of him,” Mallmann says. That’s why he doesn’t add anything else to this recipe other than olive oil and salt. “Even adding lemon would be sacrilege,” he proclaims. If you don't have access to an outdoor space to build the two-tiered fire oven, Francis teaches you how to make this fish encased in salt inside your kitchen, too. And just remember: “There’s nothing sadder than an overcooked fish. It makes me cry.” So, don’t overcook your fish and make Francis Mallmann shed tears of sadness.
“It’s tempting. It’s full of desire. And they're both very sweet.” - Francis Mallmann. In Argentina, panqueques are generally thin crepes and served as dessert with dollops of dulce de leche. Francis teaches how to make two different panqueque desserts on the plancha that make him “very happy”: Dulce de Leche Pancakes and Granny Smith Apple Pancakes. While Francis serves this for dessert, you can mix things up and surprise your family with a deliciously sweet panqueque breakfast.
When there’s a brisk Patagonian chill that fills the air, there’s one comforting food Francis wants to eat: chupín de trucha, or Fisherman’s soup with trout. “Chupín is the most beautiful word for a soup of fish,” Francis explains. Chupín is also known as fish stew and is commonly found across the region near lagoons, rivers, and fishermen's towns. The name chupín comes from the Spanish word chupar. It’s a word commonly used in the phrase, “Para chuparse los dedos,” which means “finger-licking good”. The true taste of the chupín comes from the bones and the head of the fish, plus a lot of love and care. Francis will teach the skills to make this incredible broth and how to truly build and layer complex flavors with simple ingredients. This is a dish proven to nourish the body and soul.
“Desserts in Argentina are important. We love very sweet things.” Francis teaches how to make one of his favorite desserts: Burnt citrus fruits with a sugary crust. Learn how to make this refreshing dish and add it to your dessert repertoire. It may seem simple, but it’s loaded with supremely fresh and complex flavors and textures.
Francis brings us to one of his favorite places on the island, near a beautiful waterfall, to cook trout fillets sandwiched between two crispy potato cakes. Francis uses a freshwater brook trout, known for its vibrant pink color, but you can always substitute for different kinds of fish like flounder, snapper, and sole. Francis teaches techniques like the proper way to fillet a fish, using his favorite knife that he bought in 1978 in Paris. This simple recipe will be a total brunch crowd-pleaser for your family and friends.
No pots or pans are needed for this recipe. Join Francis on a hike in the wild outdoors, on the edge of a beautiful waterfall where he improvises a simple meal with only sticks and fish. Francis teaches how to build a makeshift grill and cooks freshwater brook trout fish “a la vara”, crucified asador-style over an open flame.
A simple dessert that only calls for 3 ingredients: Pears, salt, and dulce de leche. Francis cooks the pears in the infiernillo, also known as the little hell, an oven he made inspired by the Incan people who made stone versions high in the desert on the eastern slope of the Andes mountain range. “When you cook a pear like this, all of the humidity of the pear stays inside so it’s very, very delicious,” Francis explains adding that the slight amount of salt that remains on the outside pear skin will bring added interest and complexity.
“Asado on Sundays is more like a ceremony than a meal. Asado is a religion in our country,” says Francis. It’s Sunday on the island and him and his team are preparing a traditional barbecue feast: Chorizos, steaks, ribs, sweetbreads, salads, and free-flowing red Argentine wine abound the table. In this short documentary, Francis takes you into his Patagonian world to see the true meaning of this sacred ritual that defines Argentine culture. Francis shows you how to grill, make all the barbecue sides and sauces, and most of course, the importance of being in good company.
Francis and his brother Carlos go on a nature walk to a beautiful waterfall. There, they decide to make an impromptu barbecue lunch with whatever Francis finds in his pockets. He quickly whips up one of his favorite no-fuss Gaucho-inspired camping meals: Skirt steak and burnt bread sandwich.
It’s hard to find a dessert in Argentina that doesn’t contain dulce de leche. Francis’s sous chef, Ricki Motta, teaches how to make this classic favorite that will sweeten up your life.
Clarified butter is the secret weapon Francis uses to make his food crispy and luxurious. Ricki Motta, Francis’s sous chef, teaches how to make this golden glory. Since Francis’s food tends to require open flames, the lack of milk solids in the clarified butter enables it to have a high smoke point, an ideal match for this style of cooking. The result? Crunchier potatoes, a perfect char on seared meat, and vegetables dancing in butterfat with little worry of it burning too quickly. Plus, clarified butter can last fresh for months in the fridge.
No Sunday Asado in Argentina would be complete without salsa criolla, the national sauce, alongside chimichurri, that is served at traditional Argentine barbecues across the country. Francis’s version calls for a fresh medley of chopped onions, colorful bell peppers, tomatoes, red onions, and spring onions drenched in acidic red wine vinegar.
Never make another potato salad the same way ever again. Francis puts his spin on the Argentine barbecue classic side with a tangy mustard vinaigrette. While you can always use a knife, follow Francis’s motto and use your hands. “Everything you can cut and break with your hands, the better,” he says.
Francis doesn’t like salads that are busy and cramped on a plate. Instead, he leans towards the generosity of space. Learn how to make one of Francis’s favorite salads that he calls simple yet noble.