Visiting Argentine Chef to Bring Hellfire to Il Buco

Most visiting chefs making special appearances in New York kitchens hail from countries like Spain and France, and accordingly, bring foams and terrines aplenty. The Argentine chef Francis Mallman, however, will be packing one thing only with him later this month when he arrives for his guest chef stint at Bond Street restaurant Il Buco, and that one thing is Special Techniques in Advanced Patagonian Grilling. Hopefully, it clears customs.

On June 15, Mallman and Il Buco's chef Igancio Mattos will serve a four-course, $90 fixed price menu that includes a grilled ribeye steak with a stack of domino potatoes and chimichurri sauce, the Argentine chef's signature plate. The meal, which also includes wine, ties in with the release of Mallman's new cookbook Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way. The book offers instructions on seven different grilling methods, including the infiernillo, or 'little hell,' a ranch home of a grill that Il Buco's chef Mattos deploys every year for the restaurant's street side, day-long Sagra del Maiale festival.

Mattos told us last year that the famous Argentine chef, who has three restaurants in South America, was his mentor. "From Francis," he said, "I learned that the most important things in the kitchen are about living, attitude, and character." Last weekend in her summer cookbooks roundup for the New York Times, Christine Muhlke put it another way, writing "what makes Mallmann so punk is that he makes six ingredients taste better than 20."