Every chef in the world pays close attention to what goes into their food, but here at Los Potreros we care just as much about what our food does to the environment. Our chefs have always had a "no waste" mentality, and they keep finding new ways to throw out less and build a menu that wastes as little as possible.
A Farm Full of Fruit, Nuts and Foraging Spots
So much of the estancia's food comes down to where we source it. With beef and pigs raised on the farm and fruit trees and vegetable beds spread across the estancia, every season brings something new. Spring takes us high into the sierras, where wild asparagus grows on the ridges and watercress fills the streams, while the garden's fruit trees give us their first fruit of the year, usually apricots.
Summer brings plums, peaches, cherries and much more. Many guests love picking mirabelles, a sweet yellow plum, down by the waterfall as a mid-morning snack before riding back for lunch. Anyone who has stayed in December will have seen soft fruit in every corner of the farm, which we pick in vast quantities every day. It becomes cakes, desserts, jams, chutneys, flavoured ice creams and infused gins, and fills our fruit bowl for weeks on end.
As summer draws to a close, we turn to the vegetable patch, where the root vegetables come into their own - roasted and served alongside osso buco, they make the perfect autumn dinner. Then come the quinces, found in huge numbers at Potrero de Niz. The chefs take on the long job of making the pinkest quince jelly, and then the quince paste the Begg family remember their grandmother making every year.
As the estancia slows down for winter, we pick the last figs, from the trees at our cattle station to a few secret bushes by the swimming pool. Almost any corner of the estancia hides a delicacy for our growing collection of jams and chutneys - it's often just a matter of knowing where to look. Ask Kevin for the best spots to forage walnuts, gather chestnuts or dig and replant Jerusalem artichokes.
Our Commitment to Farm-to-Table Dining at Los Potreros
Farm to table is at the heart of how we cook. Between our own beef, eggs from our hens, home-grown fruit and vegetables, and a cellar of wines from Argentina's vineyards, we keep everything as local as we can whenever we can't produce it ourselves.
Learning From the Gauchos' Old Preserving Traditions
Looking back on the estancia's history, we're reminded that the gauchos lived simply and were known for their resourcefulness, from plaiting their own bridles from rawhide to preserving meat for their families without fridges or freezers. We've taken inspiration from those roots and brought back traditional ways of preserving, both to develop our menu and to waste less. We've experimented with smoking our own beef, which cures the meat through long exposure to wood smoke, and trying different fragrant woods has given us some fabulous flavours.
The Kitchen: The Heart of Estancia Los Potreros
The kitchen really is the heart of the estancia, from guests joining the chefs to learn the art of Argentine cooking to the staff sharing a mate during the day. Everything is cooked from scratch, from freshly baked bread and cakes to every meal for guests and staff, and there's always something worth popping your head in to see. Looking ahead, we'll keep finding new ways to make the most of what we grow and rear ourselves, and to strengthen our ties with the local area.