Part 2: Julieta Oriolo's Italian Kitchen

“When most immigrants arrive in a new land, they adapt to what is already there,” Julieta says. “But here the opposite happened.” According to Julieta, when Italians came to Argentina, Argentines took certain aspects of Italian cooking and fused it. “In Italy, they eat polpette (meatballs) alone. But here, it’s with pasta,” she says.

“Argentina’s most popular foods - pizza, milanesas, raviolis - they have Italian roots, but done in a total Argentine way,” Julieta says, stating that inside the bodegones (cantinas) of Buenos Aires there are all sorts of famous pastas that look nothing like what would be served in Italy. “In Genova, you’d find fresh pesto pasta only when basil is in its prime, while here, you’d find pesto cream with chicken all year round.”

When Julieta first opened La Alacena in 2014, she offered a more porteño breakfast and brunch menu, food that was more familiar to the Argentine palate. “I thought that was what people wanted.” During that time Eggs Benedict and French toast were popular brunch dishes, and Julieta felt she had to keep up with the competition.

“One day I thought that I wanted to do something different, make it more tano, and that’s when we began making the Italian brunch: Salumi, Aperol, farinata, cavatelli. Sure I’ll make an egg, but I’ll sneak in an Italian sausage.” Julieta says she was scared the new menu wouldn’t work, so she started by adding a few Italian specials. Then, people began showing up for the Italian food. Julieta said once she began making food more true to her Italian heritage and cooking style restaurant really took off.

La Alacena doesn’t offer an extensive list of pastas and sauces like other Italian restaurants in Buenos Aires. Instead, the reduced menu features antipasti and homemade pastas. “My cooking is simple, it’s my roots, it’s what excites me, to make honest and good food,” Julieta says.

The past few months have been challenging due to COVID, but Julieta said it has also given her perspective. “When we first went into quarantine, we had to do a total rethink of everything.” When Argentina went into lockdown and restaurants could only offer delivery, the food they were making didn’t arrive well. “The pastas were overcooked, so instead we decided to sell our homemade pastas and sauces separately, and it became an instant hit,” she says.

Today, the menu is a journey across Julieta’s Italian kitchen. “There is always a cheese, a salumi, a seasonal vegetable, maybe some fish like sardines, a few meat dishes, like porchetta, and pastas. Every day I’m making a new special, seasonal, it’s fun because now the restaurant is already working on its own. I just come and watch, sometimes I enter the kitchen and cook a few things, or come up with new menu items. I love making dishes, it brings me a lot of happiness.” 

"One of the hits on the menu is lasagna Carmelia, named after my Aunt Carmelia, who taught me how to make the recipe. It is a lasagna a la bolognese, with thin layers of dough, bolognese sauce, ricotta, fior di latte and Pomodoro sauce." 

"This is stracciatella, which is the center of the burrata. We mix the mozzarella fior di latte with cream and then add seasonal vegetables, like asparagus, basil, peppermint and pistachios."

“This is polpette de ternera, or meatballs, that my mom taught me how to make. We serve is with Pomodoro sauce, spinach, and garbanzos. The meatballs are something I’ve always had in my house. My grandmother would make it, and so would my mom. She even came to the restaurant when we opened to teach us how to make it.” 

"This is salumi, a platter of Italian cured meats, like pepperoni, andouille, and guanciale, with farinata (chickpea cake)."

Julieta is about to film a television program on El Gourmet channel about Italian cooking, and her book with her Italian recipes will come out soon. “I am always looking how I can make things better. But I’m happy where we are now because this is me, this is what I want to do my whole life.”