Gapasai: Ten Years Celebrating Nature and Gastronomy in Cordoba

Gapasai turned ten years old and that is no mean feat.
This family project has put Córdoba on the most demanding gastronomic map. Santiago Blondel, its founder and alma mater, settled in the outskirts of La Cumbre after an intense educational journey that took him to Spain and Australia.
Inspired by restaurants such as El Bulli and Mugaritz, Blondel turned the playroom of his family’s summer house in Córdoba into the restaurant we know today.
During the first part of these ten years he had to continue doing seasons in Menorca during the Argentine winter in order to make ends meet.
Today he is totally dedicated to Gapasai.
There, in addition to the restaurant, he runs a boutique inn.
The natural environment is breathtaking.

One of the salient features of this project is its environmental awareness: they work with local suppliers, promote the care of native forests, the proper disposal of waste and develop seasonal crops from an agroecological perspective.
Gapasai offers a conceptual menu by steps that describes the different stages of nature in the mountain environment.
It is a way to tell a story of that environment and value local products.

These are some of the products they work with: prickly pear, ucle, ulua, physalis, molle, carob, chañar, mistol, piquillin, moradillo, pennyroyal, palo amarillo, marcela, paico, suico, peperina, pine and coconut mushrooms, purslane, quinoa and wild asparagus.
Fish from nearby rivers such as tararira, carp, boga, shad and silverside.
T Also river shrimp. Game meats such as pigeon.
Meat from small local producers: kid, rabbit, viscacha, lamb, sheep, heifers, pork and chickens.
Eggs from the countryside.
Vegetables and fruits from friendly gardeners.
Honey from chilca, mistol, multiflora and more, from a local producer who practices permapiculture (beekeeping that works with the principles of permaculture).
Mineral water from a spring located 9 km from the restaurant.
Whole wheat flour from a micro-enterprise 12 km away.

Each dish at Gapasai synthesizes the incredible surrounding universe of the sierras and its inhabitants.
With each season the possibilities transform and multiply. Rutini Wines celebrates these first ten years of Gapasai and hopes to continue accompanying the cuisine of Santiago Blondel and his team for many more.