What was previously a neighborhood of workshops and low houses was transformed into a gastronomic hub where bars and restaurants coexist with quality proposals. Without the pretensions of Palermo’s culinary mandates, in Chacarita you live and enjoy gastronomy in tune with bohemianism and the calm of the neighborhood.
One of the new features of this circuit is Bochinchea cuisine of Italian heritage with a contemporary look, where there are Italian-American classics, such as spaghetti with meatballs and pomodoro and high lasagna. The project comes from the hand of two friends who want to start a business: the chef Gaspar Natiello and Lucas Etchegoyen, a specialist in sustainable development. Both enrich this space with their contributions as professionals.
The kitchen of Bochinche It points to the flavors of Italian immigrants with a contemporary look. In charge of the fires is Natiello (42), a low-profile chef born in Olavarría and trained at the Gato Dumas school who gained fame when he founded Black Garlic together with Damián Giammarino, who developed an innovative concept of “sea tapas”.
After 9 intense years in Black Garlicwhere the fish menu changed four times a year and new dishes were presented every week, Natiello moved away from the small plate format to return to the classic structure of starter, main course and dessert with homemade flavors. In 2025 it also opened Silvinoa neighborhood bistro with comfort food.
“Bochinche came from the hand of the neighborhood; “We felt that Chacarita was missing a good pasta place in a relaxed place far from the classic Italian restaurants,” Gaspar begins. The space is spacious, with an open kitchen, an impressive bar and a beautiful patio surrounded by plants. There are no checkered tablecloths or anything that refers to Italy. The aesthetic is modern, relaxed and stripped of clichés.
An environment that fuses materials and shapes from the ’60s with seats fixed to the wall and the luggage rack above that emulates an old train, lamps and green acrylic present in all rooms, even the bathroom. Futuristic design combined with a kitchen that transmits the warmth of home. “The idea was to look for that contrast, so that nothing tells you that you are in a restaurant with a proposal based on Italian cuisine,” he adds.
The name is no coincidence. Bochinche It is a tribute to your family history. “I come from a large family, with four brothers (I am the youngest) and from a house with open doors, with many friends coming and going, long tables… and this space takes me back to a house inhabited with the spirit of home, without reaching Italian neorealism.”
In this place, Gaspar displays all his talent with a menu dominated by Italian pasta fatta at home. The menu is built from carefully selected and clearly worked products. The menu has more than 10 varieties of pasta, made by hand and with machines brought from Italy.
“Stuffed pastas such as lasagna, cannelloni and ravioli are made by hand; we use the extruder and laminator for the rest of the pasta,” says the chef and details: “we use Campodonicoeggs The Tandilera and the meat of Juliaproducers of 100% pastoral organic beef; all projects aligned with organic and sustainability.”
What happens in the kitchen is the result of a rare crossover. On the one hand, the career of “el Gaspo” Natiello in the kitchen focused on traceability and honest flavor; on the other, Lucas Etchegoyen’s specialization in sustainability. “Here we measure and monitor the environmental operation from day one through a system that we are developing together and called Foodprint,” says Gaspar. “It is a tool to measure sustainability in restaurants that is based on artificial intelligence and quantifies consumption (electricity, gas, water), waste and emissions in real time,” he explains and underlines: “we are aware of what we produce, what we consume and what we throw away, without being extremist because it would be impossible.”
In line with this practice, traceability is key in its comprehensive proposal. Beyond the raw materials used for the preparations, the setting speaks of sustainability.
“For the table at the central bar we brought a piece of incense, a tree born and raised in Misiones that an artisan worked especially for the restaurant. There are 450 kilograms of table, and we have all the traceability and awareness of the impact it has. It is a nursery tree, no forest was cut down, and we have all the data of its origin,” he adds.
The menu is short but forceful, with a variety of options and a lot of identity. There is no intention to reproduce traditional Italian cuisine recipes, but rather to reinterpret those classic preparations.
To begin, seven preparations in the appetizer section highlighting the fainá that comes with stracciatella and fresh zucchini slices; and also the porchetta accompanied with a good potato and egg salad.
As for the main dishes, there is a risotto of eggplant, pancetta and candied cherries and 11 pasta dishes with classic sauces such as pesto, pomodoro or amatriciana with the chef’s personal touch to give a more modern and expressive profile to the dish.
“Lasagna is becoming a classic, as are spaghetti with meatballs and ricotta and spinach ravioli with sage butter,” says Gaspar. A balanced dish is the chitarra with peas, beans, lemon and stracciatella, as well as the Casarecce with pesto for fans of this traditional Italian sauce. Something more played, the gigli They come with anchovies, pepperoncino, garlic and pangrattato; Pork and prawn cannelloni with truffle bechamel is another of the creative dishes on the menu.
For the sweet moment, traditional preparations such as tiramisu and others less common on the Buenos Aires table such as eggs quimbo “a traditional dessert from the colonial era that was recovered by Mecha Rosas, our head chef,” Gaspar reveals and points out: “it is a dessert with a dough based on yolks that is soaked in syrup. We serve it accompanied with orange cream.”
To accompany it, there are wines chosen with good judgment and cordial attention where it is possible to see their owners very often.
Bochinche. Santos Dumont 4056, Chacarita (CABA). From Tuesday to Saturday from 8 p.m. On IG: @hastabochinche
