Francis Mallmann is the Argentine chef and author who is widely considered the defining figure in contemporary open-fire cooking and the most internationally visible Argentine chef of the past 30 years. Born 7 April 1956 in Buenos Aires and raised in Bariloche in the Patagonian Andes, Mallmann trained in classical French cuisine in Paris in the late 1970s, cooking at Cafe de la Paix and in kitchens associated with the Troisgros family. He returned to Argentina in the 1980s and spent three decades building a reputation as the chef who would reclaim the South American open-fire cooking traditions of the gauchos.
Mallmann now operates restaurants across Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, the United States and France, including Patagonia Sur in Buenos Aires, Siete Fuegos at The Vines Resort and Spa in Mendoza, Los Fuegos at Faena Miami Beach, and Chez Mallmann in Paris. His private island cooking experience La Soplada in Patagonia hosts small groups for multi-day fire-cooking retreats. The 2024 YesChef documentary The Master of Fire (57 minutes) brought renewed global visibility to his work, and a February 2025 Smoke and Fire master class at The Vines Resort with American barbecue chef Aaron Franklin cemented his position as the defining fire chef of the current era. His cookbooks Seven Fires (2009), Mallmann on Fire (2014) and Green Fire (2022) together form the standard texts on modern open-fire cooking.
TL;DR
- Argentine chef born 7 April 1956 in Buenos Aires; raised in Bariloche, Patagonian Andes
- Trained in classical French cuisine in Paris in the late 1970s
- Defining chef of contemporary open-fire cooking; Seven Fires (2009) is standard text
- Operates restaurants in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, US and France
- 2024: YesChef documentary The Master of Fire released (57 minutes)
- February 2025: Smoke and Fire master class with Aaron Franklin at The Vines Resort, Mendoza
Francis Mallmann key facts
| Born | 7 April 1956, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Nationality | Argentine |
| Raised | Bariloche, Patagonian Andes, Argentina |
| Training | Classical French cuisine in Paris (late 1970s); stages at Troisgros and other French kitchens |
| Key restaurants | Patagonia Sur (Buenos Aires); Siete Fuegos (Mendoza); Los Fuegos (Miami); Chez Mallmann (Paris); La Soplada (private island, Patagonia) |
| Signature | Siete Fuegos (Seven Fires) open-fire cooking technique |
| Cookbooks | Seven Fires (2009); Mallmann on Fire (2014); Green Fire (2022) |
Early life and training of Francis Mallmann
Mallmann was born on 7 April 1956 in Buenos Aires, the son of a nuclear physicist father who moved the family to Bariloche in the Patagonian Andes when Francis was a young boy. The Bariloche childhood, spent among the mountains, lakes and forests of northern Patagonia, shaped his entire later approach to cooking. He has said in interviews that his earliest cooking memories were around outdoor fires on Patagonian camping trips, and that the open-fire cooking traditions of the gauchos were present in his family from the beginning.
In his late teens Mallmann left Bariloche and travelled through Europe before settling in Paris in the late 1970s. He worked at Cafe de la Paix and in kitchens connected to the Troisgros family in Roanne, and took shorter stages in other classical French kitchens. The French training gave him a classical foundation that he would later subvert deliberately. He returned to Argentina in the early 1980s and opened his first restaurant in Buenos Aires, cooking in a French style. Through the 1980s he ran a succession of fine-dining restaurants in Buenos Aires that earned critical attention but did not yet express his later fire-focused identity.
The turning point came in the mid-1990s when Mallmann began a conscious turn away from classical French technique and toward the South American open-fire cooking traditions he had grown up with in Patagonia. The shift was gradual but clear: progressively more open-fire elements entered his menus, and by the late 1990s he had begun codifying a set of seven distinct open-fire cooking methods that he would later publish as the Siete Fuegos framework. In 2004 he opened Los Negros, a small fire-focused restaurant in Jose Ignacio, Uruguay, that became the first serious international venue for his fire work.
Francis Mallmann career timeline
- 7 April 1956: Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Early 1960s: Family moves to Bariloche, Patagonian Andes
- Late 1970s: Trains in classical French kitchens in Paris
- Early 1980s: Returns to Argentina; opens first restaurant in Buenos Aires
- 1980s: Runs a succession of Buenos Aires fine-dining restaurants in classical French style
- Mid-1990s: Turns toward South American open-fire cooking traditions
- Late 1990s: Begins codifying the Siete Fuegos (Seven Fires) framework
- 2004: Opens Los Negros in Jose Ignacio, Uruguay; first international fire-focused venue
- 2008: Opens Patagonia Sur in La Boca, Buenos Aires
- 2009: Publishes Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way (Artisan)
- 2011: Opens Siete Fuegos at The Vines Resort and Spa in Uco Valley, Mendoza
- 2014: Publishes Mallmann on Fire (Artisan)
- 2015: Featured in Chef’s Table Volume 1 episode on Netflix; global visibility expands
- 2016: Opens Los Fuegos at Faena Miami Beach
- 2017: Opens La Soplada, a private fire-cooking island experience in Patagonia
- 2019: Opens Chez Mallmann in Paris
- 2021: Opens Fogon Asado in Buenos Aires (a longer omakase-style parrilla experience)
- 2022: Publishes Green Fire: Extraordinary Ways to Grill Fruits and Vegetables
- 2024: YesChef releases Chef Francis Mallmann’s Story: The Master of Fire (57-minute documentary)
- February 12-16, 2025: Hosts Smoke and Fire master class with Aaron Franklin at The Vines Resort, Mendoza
- 2024-2025: Los Fuegos Miami and Fogon Asado Buenos Aires recognised in the Michelin Guides
- 2026: All key restaurants continue to operate; La Soplada continues private-island retreats in Patagonia
Francis Mallmann signature style: Siete Fuegos and Patagonian open-fire cooking
Mallmann’s central argument is that South American open-fire cooking, especially the gaucho traditions of Argentine and Uruguayan Patagonia, is a sophisticated culinary category worthy of fine-dining attention and requires its own technical vocabulary. The Siete Fuegos framework that he codified in the 1990s and 2000s identifies seven distinct open-fire methods: parrilla (grill), chapa (plancha), infiernillo (two-fire oven), horno de barro (clay oven), rescoldo (embers), asador (vertical cross), and curanto (earth oven). The 2009 cookbook Seven Fires presents the framework as a complete system, and the 2014 Mallmann on Fire extends it with longer recipes and narrative essays.
The second defining element is the landscape-and-ritual argument. Mallmann stages cooking as an outdoor ritual in specific wild settings, most famously at La Soplada, his private Patagonian island, where guests cook and eat over fires across multiple days. The practice is closely connected to his decades of summer residency in Bariloche and on Patagonian islands, and the 2024 YesChef documentary The Master of Fire documents the island practice in detail. The approach argues that cooking’s deepest meaning comes from its outdoor, ritual-in-landscape origins.
The third pillar is the international restaurant group. Patagonia Sur in Buenos Aires, Siete Fuegos in Mendoza, Los Fuegos at Faena Miami Beach, Fogon Asado in Buenos Aires, Chez Mallmann in Paris, and Los Negros in Uruguay together form a distinctive multi-country portfolio anchored in open-fire cooking. Within the South American fine-dining context Mallmann sits alongside Gaston Acurio in Peru and Helena Rizzo in Brazil as chefs who have built careers around specific national culinary traditions.
Notable dishes in the Francis Mallmann canon
Several Mallmann dishes and techniques have become reference points in contemporary open-fire cooking. The dome of salt-crusted whole fish cooked over embers, the asador cross lamb cooked vertically over open fire for hours, the rescoldo ember-roasted potatoes and root vegetables, and the infiernillo two-fire oven vegetables are defining preparations. The burnt half-lemons (lemons charred heavily on the parrilla and then squeezed over finished dishes) are a signature garnish used widely across his restaurants. At Siete Fuegos in Mendoza, the seven-method tasting menu presents one preparation from each of the Siete Fuegos methods in sequence. His cookbooks Seven Fires (2009), Mallmann on Fire (2014) and Green Fire (2022) are the standard texts. The 2024 YesChef documentary The Master of Fire is the defining visual document of his practice.
Francis Mallmann awards and recognition
- Late 1990s: Codifies the Siete Fuegos (Seven Fires) open-fire framework
- 2009: Publishes Seven Fires; becomes standard text on Argentine grill cooking
- 2014: Publishes Mallmann on Fire (Artisan)
- 2015: Chef’s Table Volume 1 episode on Netflix; global visibility expands
- 2017: Opens La Soplada private-island fire-cooking experience
- 2019: Opens Chez Mallmann in Paris
- 2022: Publishes Green Fire: Extraordinary Ways to Grill Fruits and Vegetables
- 2024: YesChef releases Chef Francis Mallmanns Story: The Master of Fire (57-minute documentary)
- 2024-2025: Los Fuegos Miami and Fogon Asado Buenos Aires recognised in Michelin Guides
- February 2025: Hosts Smoke and Fire master class with Aaron Franklin at The Vines Resort, Mendoza
Francis Mallmann impact on open-fire cooking
Mallmann’s most concrete contribution is the Siete Fuegos framework and the argument that South American open-fire cooking constitutes a serious culinary category with its own vocabulary. Before Seven Fires (2009), open-fire cooking in international fine dining was largely reduced to grilling and barbecue, and the gaucho traditions of Patagonia were rarely discussed internationally. The Siete Fuegos framework gave chefs and home cooks a clear vocabulary for multiple distinct fire methods and has been widely adopted and referenced in professional kitchens since.
The second contribution is the landscape-and-ritual argument. The La Soplada private-island experience, the Patagonian lamb asados, and the outdoor-cooking-as-ritual approach have reshaped how a generation of chefs approach open-fire cooking. The 2015 Chef’s Table episode and the 2024 YesChef documentary have made the Mallmann practice one of the most visually recognisable signatures in contemporary cooking.
The third contribution is the Latin American fine-dining conversation. Mallmann sits alongside Gaston Acurio in Peru, Virgilio Martinez at Central in Lima, and Helena Rizzo in Brazil as defining Latin American chefs of the past 25 years. Together they have built the Latin American fine-dining category from near-absence in the 1990s to current global top-tier recognition.
Francis Mallmann FAQ
What are the seven fires?
The Siete Fuegos (Seven Fires) framework Mallmann codified in the 1990s and 2000s identifies seven distinct open-fire cooking methods: parrilla (grill), chapa (plancha or flat iron), infiernillo (two-fire oven), horno de barro (clay oven), rescoldo (embers), asador (vertical cross), and curanto (earth oven). The 2009 cookbook Seven Fires presents the complete framework.
Where are Mallmann’s restaurants?
Key current venues include Patagonia Sur in La Boca (Buenos Aires), Siete Fuegos at The Vines Resort in Mendoza, Los Fuegos at Faena Miami Beach, Fogon Asado in Buenos Aires, Chez Mallmann in Paris, and Los Negros in Jose Ignacio, Uruguay. La Soplada is his private-island fire-cooking experience in Patagonia.
What is La Soplada?
Mallmann’s private Patagonian island, where he hosts small groups for multi-day fire-cooking retreats. Guests cook and eat around open fires across the island in a ritual outdoor setting. The experience was opened around 2017 and continues to operate through Satopia Travel as a hosted experience in 2026.
What is the Master of Fire documentary?
A 57-minute YesChef documentary titled Chef Francis Mallmanns Story: The Master of Fire, released in 2024, that documents Mallmann’s life, his Patagonian island practice, and the Siete Fuegos cooking methods in detail. The documentary is one of the most widely-watched chef documentaries of 2024.
Where did Mallmann train?
In classical French kitchens in Paris in the late 1970s, including Cafe de la Paix and stages in kitchens connected to the Troisgros family in Roanne. He has described the French training as a foundation that he later consciously subverted in favor of South American open-fire traditions.
What is next for Francis Mallmann
All of Mallmann’s restaurants continue to operate in 2026, including Patagonia Sur, Siete Fuegos, Los Fuegos Miami, Fogon Asado, Chez Mallmann and Los Negros. The La Soplada private-island experience continues through Satopia Travel, and further master-class events at The Vines Resort continue the 2025 Smoke and Fire collaboration model. His public Instagram (@francismallmann) is the best source for current updates.
