Best Chefs in Pittsburgh: The Dynamic Duo of Argentinian Food at Gaucho Parrilla Argentina
By Olivia Miller
Pittsburgh’s premier Argentinian restaurant, Gaucho Parrilla Argentina, is serving up South American flair in the Golden Triangle thanks to culinary director, Alan Peet, and executive chef, Kurt Diedrich. The pair, who have been taking the city’s food scene by storm since 2022, have been righteously dubbed by owner Anthony Falcon as a “dynamic duo.”
Peet got his start in the culinary sphere in his mother’s kitchen where he developed a “natural talent” for cooking that drove him to “[cook] through high school and college”. After working years in country clubs, he was spurred by a “quality of life change” to settle in as culinary director at Gaucho in June of 2022.
On the other hand, Chef Diedrich’s career was started by chance after covering for an absent line cook employee while bussing tables at Cafe Sam in Shadyside. The “lifestyle and vibe” as well as the opportunity to “[work] side by side with good people” in the kitchen ultimately inspired him to attend the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute and start as executive chef at Gaucho in 2013 at their first location in the Strip District.
To both of them, being a chef is less about what they do and more about who they are. Peet says a good chef must be a “jack of all trades” and put creativity at the forefront of their work, while “still [being] a leader and a teacher.” He also says that a chef needs to be able to embrace the uniqueness of each day. Though they have the “same ingredients and same [menu] items, something different happens everyday.”
Both of them have easily proven that the key to being a good chef is having an innovative mind. Chef Diedrich says that a lot of the fusion items on the restaurant’s menu are results of Peet’s culinary inventions. He says, “a lot of things have been your brain babies.” Such as Gaucho’s new fugazza, a type of Argentinian focaccia, pizza hybrid that was created by Peet after researching what native dishes were missing from the menu. After a nearly three month process of trial and error when crafting the perfect fugazza dough, the dish joined the menu, much to the delight of the restaurant’s customers (and their stomachs).
To try the tasty products of Chef Diedrich and Peet’s culinary collaboration, Gaucho Parrilla Argentina is open for lunch Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00-2:30pm and dinner Tuesday through Sunday from 4:00 pm - 10:00pm. You can find more information and see a complete menu on their website.
