2nd Best at the Panettone World Championship in Milan. Winner of 15 international awards, and Argentine Panettone Champion.
Founder of Squadrachefs, an academy where he offers in-person and online masterclasses in collaboration with internationally acclaimed European pastry chefs and bakers, as well as distinguished Argentine professionals.
They worked very hard until the 1980s when they bought Confitería Artiaga with no partners, as they always wanted. A bakery in Saavedra neighborhood which already existed since 1931.
Year after year the bakery got recognized, making more variety of products, enlarging the work team and generating a beautiful symbiosis with customers and neighborhood.
Everyone became one big family. My brothers and I grew up in that environment, working hard and with a constant desire of improving ourselves for decades which was passed from generation to generation!
You can see more of this beautiful story in our mini series on YouTube.
While I was finishing my university studies (I have an administration degree) I studied in different pastry and bakery schools. At the same time I was working in the bakery and becoming more and more convinced that I liked what I was doing and wanted to achieve something greater from my profession.
I have always been interested in ecology, the main reason why I began to learn about raw materials, get involved by looking for and going to visit suppliers. Also see where they work, what is the philosophy of their team work, how it is done and under what responsibility and care they work. That was where our challenge of being the first bakery in the country to use certified organic raw materials began, where there is no use of preservatives, colorants, stabilizers, insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers, genetic modification in cereals, animal abuse (such as forced plucking, cages and so on in laying hens) and much more. Being Argentina the 2nd world producer in quantity of certified organic hectares it sounded like an easy task. But it wasn’t and it is still not, since most of it is exported.
Thus began a challenge that became a long search path that has been going on for years and we are still going through it. Now we are part of MAPO (Argentine Movement for Organic Production) ready for new challenges and with more energy than ever.
Little by little I was finding national producers large and small, committed to their objectives, who sell both abroad and within the country. People who love what they do and are responsible for what they produce and that is why that extra ingredient is very notable in what they make. Achieving natural flavors and meticulously cared products. This adds a lot to us and ADDING, is for all of us at Artiaga, a KEY word!
Recycling is also something that I installed in Artiaga and still is in constant
improvement. We work on our waste, but also with suppliers, thinking about alternatives to plastic in what they provide us.
This is Artiaga, a great chain of participants committed to what we do, so that YOU can enjoy our products.
SquadraChefs is an online school with in-person events created by Juan Manuel Alfonso Rodriguez (Juan Mar), Argentine Panettone Champion and winner of several international awards at the Panettone World Championship.
You can now access many courses from various chef colleagues and friends, both from Argentina and around the world. We will contribute all our knowledge based on our vast experience to the entire community of amateurs, professionals, and entrepreneurs.
We will offer online training with chefs specialized in each area. Together we make up SquadraChefs! We will also offer exclusive in-person training sessions!
