Guillermo Calabrese
Argentine chef and television presenter
Biography
Guillermo Miguel Calabrese was an Argentine chef best known for his role in training cooks and for his presence on Argentine food television. Born in Buenos Aires in 1961, he died in the same city in 2023, so his career spanned the final decades of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first.
He attended the La Salle school in Buenos Aires and studied medicine for a time. At twenty-five he approached Carlos "Gato" Dumas and asked to become his apprentice. He started as a cleaner in the kitchen of one of his mentor's restaurants and, according to the available accounts, became head chef within only three years. He later opened restaurants of his own and began appearing on television.
In 1998 he co-founded the Instituto Gato Dumas with Dumas, a cookery school with campuses in Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia. He presented Cocineros argentinos from 2010 to 2019 and from 2022 hosted Qué mañana!. He also worked in radio, first on the Aspen Cheff segment and later with the pastry chef Martín Teitelbaum on the show Al pie del carbón. He died in April 2023 after a cardiorespiratory arrest at his home. His legacy is tied to the school he helped found and to the promotion of Argentine cooking in the media.
Key contributions
- Co-founding of the Instituto Gato Dumas, with campuses in Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia, to train culinary professionals.
- Presenting Cocineros argentinos, a programme that brought national cooking to a wide audience between 2010 and 2019.
- Hosting Qué mañana!, from 2022 until his death.
- Popularising gastronomy on radio through the Aspen Cheff segment and Al pie del carbón.