In a city where barbecue is a religion and food trucks roam like wild mustangs, Rod Gaffoglio is chasing a different kind of culinary frontier \u2014 one born in the kitchens of Patagonia, Argentina, and now rolling through Fort Worth with a Texas-sized twist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What started as a neighborhood curiosity has become a full-throttle family business. \u201cMy grandma \u2014 Nona \u2014 was always in the kitchen,\u201d Rod says. \u201cShe\u2019d let us kids play with dough and flour. It was a messy kind of magic.\u201d His roots in cooking run deep, anchored in his grandmother\u2019s traditional Argentine recipes, but with a personal spin that involves hours of experimentation and a dash of Texan bravado.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rod\u2019s journey back to the stove wasn\u2019t straightforward. After his grandfather\u2019s two Argentine restaurants shuttered years ago, the family\u2019s culinary legacy seemed to fade. But in 2020, with the world locked down and kitchens humming across the country, Rod rekindled that spark. \u201cI spent a year teaching myself brisket \u2014 10, 20 different ways,\u201d he says. The twist? Instead of the traditional smoker favored in Texas, he perfected a barbacoa-style brisket cooked in an oven \u2014 tender enough to fall apart in your hands, ideal for stuffing into empanadas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea came when I thought, \u2018What if I put brisket inside an empanada?\u2019\u201d Rod recalls with a laugh. \u201cMy wife said, \u2018You could probably sell that.\u2019 I wasn\u2019t so sure.\u201d A Facebook post to their neighborhood led to 20 dozen orders in two days. It was the kind of validation that turns a hobby into a dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n