Sideways in South America

Assuming that most wine tourists have done California, France, and Italy, the powers that be at Park Hyatt are training the spotlight on Argentina. Beverly Stephen reports.

Beverly Stephen
Posted: December 17, 2009

If, as Emeril says, South Beach is spring break for chefs, Masters of Food & Wine South America is a junior year abroad. Chefs like Christophe David (NoMI) and Global Hyatt f&b vice president of international operations Achim Lenders relish escaping the harsh Chicago winter, but the bonus is that summer sunshine comes with the sophisticated culture of Buenos Aires, the wine country of Mendoza, and the company of accomplished peers from all over the world. Plus civilians used to the crowds at other festivals feel like they're always in the VIP room.

For a week in February, Park Hyatt (in conjunction with lead sponsors American Airlines, Mastercard, and Wine Spectator) hosts the six day event, splitting the time between city and country. They fly in Michelin-starred toques from France, chefs representing various regions of the United States, and the leading culinary lights of South America-30 altogether-as well as some 15 sommeliers. The chefs set up stations for walk-around cocktail parties, hold cooking classes and demos, produce elaborate multicourse banquets, and turn out delightful wine-centric lunches at participating wineries. Sommeliers lead tastings and seminars and work behind the scenes on wine and food pairings.

For two decades the Masters was held at the Highlands Inn in Carmel, California, and moved to Argentina three years ago at the urging of Carl Emberson, who was general manager at Park Hyatt Mendoza at the time. (He is now general manager at Grand Hyatt São Paulo.) "Upon setting foot in Mendoza in 2005 I saw that this destination, with wineries at the foot of the Andes, was a perfect location," he recalls.

He may have been a bit ahead of his time, but his vision has proven itself.

Laura Catena, vice president of Bodega Catena Zapata, recalls that when "Park Hyatt began this event, Argentine wine was anything but mainstream. In fact, some people wondered if moving the event from Carmel, California, to Mendoza was a good idea." The reputation of the wine and the event have grown in tandem. "Today, Argentine wine is the fastest growing premium imported wine to the U.S.," Catena says, "and Argentine wine has entered the minds of most premium wine drinkers in the U.S. Judging by the crowds I saw at the Hyatt during the festivities, the event is a great success."

The Masters can only be described as a win-win for the wineries and the hotels, which accrue mountains of publicity; the communities, which benefit from tourist dollars and some charitable contributions (Make-a-Wish Argentina is one of the beneficiaries); local culinary students, who help work the events; and the visiting chefs and sommeliers, who enjoy building international relationships.

"There are a lot of networking opportunities for the chefs and the wineries," says Lenders, who believes that's crucial to "staying on top of the game." Also, he notes, "finding talented people is always our biggest challenge, and the only way is by networking."

The Masters, adds Emberson, "has strengthened the positioning of both hotels as innovative and dynamic when it comes to food and wine and culture. Today the Palacio Duhau-Park Hyatt Buenos Aires competes neck to neck with the Alvear Palace."

Chefs express the benefits on a more personal level. "It was very exciting for me to work next to Paul Kahan [Blackbird, etc., Chicago]. He's an amazing chef," says Enrique Olvera of Pujol in Mexico City. He also became friendly with Brazil's Alex Atala and is now sending one of his sous chefs to São Paulo to work with Atala. For Claudia Fleming, pastry chef/co-owner of North Fork
Table and Inn in Southold, New York, "It's primarily about networking and inspiration. If I come away with one new idea, it's worth all the hard work. This year it was the white chocolate/olive oil cream. It tempers the sweetness beautifully, and the possibilities are endless if you think of all the oils available-pistachio, hazelnut, blood orange, lemon, et cetera."

For Aldo Sohm, wine director of New York City's Le Bernardin, it was also an opportunity to spread the word about his restaurant in another continent. "I did a lot of interviews with Argentine journalists," he recalls. "I got half a page in La Nación, and a week later a customer came in who had seen it," he says, explaining that they get a lot of business from Argentina. The event was also educational in terms of learning more about the wines and finding appropriate ones for his list, which now features a couple of Malbecs from Terrazas de los Andes and Cheval des Andes as well as a Torrentes sparkling dessert wine. "They sell quite well," he says. "It's becoming cool to drink Argentine wines."

Festivities kick off at the Palacio Duhau-Park Hyatt Buenos Aires with a welcome cocktail, where more than a dozen chefs and over two dozen wineries strut their stuff, a scenario that's repeated again on the opening day in Mendoza, 644 miles away. At these walk-around events, Kahan made a hit with chorizo stuffed quail, Atala dazzled by spooning crimson red beet foam from a tall glass vase onto rounds of foie gras, Chicago's Takashi Yagihashi (Takashi) nodded to Asia with his bite-sized cubes of silky tofu wrapped in smoked salmon and served with salmon roe, oba leaves, and ginger/soy broth, and Buenos Aires' Luis Acuña stuck to his roots with a succulent roasted lamb sandwich. These receptions are open to the public and are the most crowded-300 in Buenos Aires, about 1,000 in the expansive open-air courtyard of the Park Hyatt Mendoza. All the other smaller events were attended by the 80 guests who purchased the Masters package, 70 international journalists, hotel executives, winemakers, and guest chefs.

The schedule is fairly light in Buenos Aires, leaving time to grab a red meat fix, search out a milonga, or shop for spectacular tango shoes at Comme Il Faut.

Palacio Duhau-Park Hyatt Buenos Aires sommelier Marcelo Rebole gave an afternoon wine seminar and tasting. Later the same evening for a Wine Spectator Rarities Dinner he paired fine Argentine wines with a menu headlined by French Michelin star chef Nicolas Sale (Hôtel du Castellet in Provence), whose slow-cooked black hake with confit niçoise vegetables and fennel foam had guests raving. Participating wineries put their best foot forward with offerings such as Familia Zuccardi Q Tempranillo 1997 and Catena Zapata's Angélica Zapata Malbec Alta 1995.

The next day the merry band embarked-after a four hour patience-testing delay in the airport-for Mendoza. Fortunately José Alberto Zuccardi, always the consummate host, took the opportunity to open a couple of his wines at the little airport wine bar, turning the tedious wait into an impromptu party. Guests who otherwise might have been disgruntled ended up with the opportunity to bond with one of Argentina's best known vintners.

Once in Mendoza guests were divided into groups of approximately 70 and driven on luxury buses to lavish lunches at participating wineries-Catena Zapata, Familia Zuccardi, Finca Flichman, Graffigna, Rutini Wines, Séptima, Terrazas de los Andes, Tra­piche. Coque Ossio (La Bonbonnière, Lima) and his caterer mother, Marisa Guiulfo, paired Graffigna wines with updated
Peruvian specialties such as mango and green tomato seviche with the Peruvian rocoto chile served over crispy crab cakes and shrimp and calamari anticuchos with quinoa in Andean chimichurri. At Séptima, Olvera started with a deconstructed tortilla soup with all the dry ingredients beautifully presented in a squat glass. Servers poured the broth as soon as the guests were seated. "Once you put tor­tilla soup together, it gets soggy quickly," he says. He followed with an orange and achiote marinated sea bass and a pasilla chile adobo lamb tender­loin. Yagihashi paired the wines at Catena Zapata with a cold appetizer of seared tuna with hearts of palm, avocado, and arugula and a main course of grilled marinated local beef short ribs with stir-fried brown rice and aromatic vegetables. "Getting the ingredients in Argentina, especially in Mendoza, was a challenge," he says, "mainly because my dishes were Asian. This type of cuisine is not yet commercialized in Argentina."

Late afternoons featured cooking demos and wine seminars before guests again divided into small groups and headed off to local restaurants such as 1884 Francis Mallmann and La Bourgogne.

The grand finale was a Wine Spectator gala dinner prepared by a dozen chefs who set up a massive field station in the courtyard and plated hundreds of dishes with military precision.

At countdown to kickoff, the chefs were still waiting for their truffles. Only the night before had they discovered they were half a pound short. "We must have spent three hours on the phone calling all possible suppliers to get some more truffles to Mendoza," Lenders recalls. They finally found some in Buenos Aires and got them flown to Mendoza in the nick of time.

And so everything was in place when the parade of dishes began. There was crème brûlée of foie gras; marinated ahi with mandarin gelée, roasted scallops with sugar snap peas, caviar, and gold leaf; beef tenderloin with black truffle; and wine, wine, wine from Terrazas de los Andes, Séptima, Zuccardi, Catena, Flichman, Tra­piche, and La Rural.

After all that, the chefs were sighted in the wee hours eating steak at a local restaurant. And they still managed to be in good form the next day for a farewell barbecue on the grounds of the Familia Zuccardi winery.

No sooner are the festivities over than the Park Hyatt team starts organizing next year's event. Just like Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.