Named after the first bull ever imported to Argentina from the UK to improve the quality of the local beef, Tarquino is a fine-dining restaurant located within the boutique hotel HUB Porteño in which we spent our first night in Buenos Aires
The head chef at Tarquino is Dante Liporace, a rising star in Argentina’s gourmet scene and one of the key figures spread-heading ‘la nueva cocina argentina’ – a culinary movement driven by Argentine chefs returning home to reinvent their native cuisine after training under the world’s best at places like El Bulli, Mugaritz and The Fat Duck.
After working with Ferran Adriá at El Bulli for two seasons, Liporace now employs highly-skilled techniques picked up in Spain to elevate the traditional Parilla (Argentine barbecue) to the level of fine-dining.
Quintessentially he has created Porteño Cooking a melting pot of different cultures that first originated from the cross between European settlers and the native Indians, and was later enhanced by the boat-loads of European immigrants who arrived in Argentina at the turn of the Twentieth Century.
The restaurant has the air of a private club, with dining tables crafted from the softest local leather and spread out under the leafy branches of the 70-year-old fig tree that grows right through the glass-roof.