The Butcher

It takes a pretty bold man to take on the Argentines on their home turf on the subject of meat. But Pedro Pena, the Colombian chef behind steak-house La Carniceria in Buenos Aires has an obsession with meat and a passion for cooking it in a more contemporary way. 

I interviewed him for Monocle's The Menu and spent an evening in the restaurant's kitchen - the place where Pedro spends most of his daylight hours cooking, or preparing their amazing home-made chorizos. This is a man who is preparing and serving the meat the traditional, no cutting corners way. And it shows. 

Pedro arrived in Buenos Aires ten years ago with the sole aim of learning to cook. But it wasn't until he took a job in a restaurant where the only way of cooking was on a grill that he had to get his parilla skills up to scratch.

Now La Carniceria, which he set up ten months ago with his Argentine business partner, German, doesn't just pay homage to meat, it's also a place to eat the best cuts picked weekly from their farm out in the campo.  This was one of Pedro's main priorities - to know exactly where the meat comes from, what the animals have been fed and how they have been looked after. Farm to table - a concept which is pretty new here in Buenos Aires.

His repertoire includes dishes such as succulent pork smoked over cherry wood or perfectly 'jugoso' rib-eye steak served with butternut puree. 

The walls aren't stacked with dusty bottles of red wine. Instead you'll find the delicious Apostoles yerba-mate infused gin cocktails and some good craft beer. 

It's a cool, modern take on the typical Argentine parilla experience. And so far the Portenos are loving it too….