An enterprising Raglan couple who started out six years ago making their own brand of chimichurri sauce at the Old School kitchen in Stewart Street are now about to launch locally a traditional style of woodfire barbeque from their native Argentina to help promote their products.
The venture follows on from an Argentinian-style barbecue catering business which Ben Parodi and wife Ani have set up to push their popular range of sauces.
“We found that more and more people were asking about the barbeque itself,” Ben told the Local Rag.
So on a recent trip back home Ben met with Asaparri – a factory specialising in products for cooking over fire – and as a result will launch at Labour Weekend a woodfire and charcoal barbeque that, he says, challenges the Kiwi idea of summertime-only outdoor cooking.
He decided to import the barbecue himself because, unlike a gas barbecue, it has a firebox that keeps on burning and creating the embers on which to cook – in turn, evoking warmth and ambience for outdoor eating at any time.
The fire transforms this method of cooking into a year-round event, Ben insists, and continues the South American tradition that he and Ani grew up with of socialising around a woodfire barbecue – specialty sauces at the ready.
“The weather is not important, it’s the experience of being out,” says Ben. “And cooking with charcoal or wood gives a much better flavour than cooking with gas,” he adds.
Ben and Ani’s business Salsa Brava started small in 2017 with the idea of making and selling chimichurri – found originally in the cuisines of Argentina and Uruguay – as a way of sharing their culture through healthy food for Kiwi tables.
The uncooked sauce using parsley, olive oil, oregano, garlic, onions and chilli began as something of a labour of love – the pair growing and chopping the parsley themselves from their then Opotoru Rd home.
Early on they travelled the country with up to 800 jars of the sauce stacked on top of their campervan in search of retail outlets.
The rest is history, a range of their sauces now sold in both Raglan supermarkets and from many other outlets.
While Ani in particular these days is busy with the couple’s two young children, Ben’s been getting all fired up about the barbeques Salsa Brava has imported to promote the sauces.
He and fellow native Argentinian Diego Nicholson are currently showing off the woodfire barbecue at Waikato Home & Garden Show, but will be back at Raglan doing demos in a fortnight.
*Catch them Labour Weekend at The Hut in Rangitahi, Saturday October 21 at 10am.
Edith Symes
