Francis Mallmann’s Philosophy on Freedom, Fear & Change

After a career in gastronomy built on French Fine-Dining, Mallmann went back to his roots

Regarded as the Godfather of open-fire cooking to his dedicated following of culinary explorers, Mallmann’s style of cooking has created a global phenomenon. Without a doubt, Mallmann is South America’s most famous chef, who has been featured on numerous international television programmes, as well as on the Netflix original series of “Chef’s Table” focusing on his life and cooking techniques.

After a career in gastronomy built on fine-dining French cuisine, Mallmann went back to his roots in the mid-nineties, learning local techniques from his childhood home of Patagonia and bringing them to the high-end food scene.

While many influential chefs around the world have engaged in an escalating competition to be as creative and forward-thinking in gastronomy as possible, Mallmann has swerved in the opposite direction, forsaking haute-cuisine. Mallmann instead is focusing on a primal style of hospitality whose core comes down to one-syllable words: smoke, fire, air, stone, salt, rain, meat, wine.

Even before his Chef’s Table debut on Netflix, Mallmann’s influence had been growing almost in direct proportion to his desire to distance himself from the culinary upper crust and do his own thing. Mallmann usually spends much of his time in Patagonia, while running his 10 restaurants around the world in South America and also in the USA and France.

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A few times a year, Francis Mallmann opens his treasured Patagonian island home to host guests for a magical stay at “La Isla”. This is an unforgettable culinary journey with the ultimate Fire-Cooking masterclass. A journey led by Latin America’s top chef, in one of the most remote corners of Patagonia will guarantee to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

La Isla is a tiny snowy island that you could walk around in less than an hour and it is where Mallmann filmed his Netflix episode of Chef’s Table. The island is remote, lending to the idea to come here mainly to disconnect from today’s busy lives and have magical dining experiences of open-fire cooking.

During the first few months of the pandemic, Mallmann has been in Mendoza, Argentina and stated that “one has the feeling that we are fine here and the virus is controlled, and I think that we are going to be able to open slowly, but you have to think that there are a number of high-end restaurants and hotels that depend on tourism.  90% of our clientele come from tourism, just opening is not going to help us much because our clients are international”.

There is a sense of appreciation for the stillness in life from Mallmann, and it seems that we all now have an opportunity to rekindle the dreams that we once had, Mallmann says.

One thing is certain, we could all use some of Mallmanns’ philosophy in times like these, so we can adopt an approach to life that can enrich our appreciation of beauty and love, and that both still exist in the world.

Francis Mallmann spoke live from Mendoza with Adam Sebba about his experience over the past few months, his approach to life, love, change, challenge and freedom. 

You can watch the conversation here and find out more about how you can join Francis Mallmann on a 5 night Hosted Experience in the Scottish Highlands in August 2021 here.