Chef Biography
Dolli Irigoyen was born in 1950 in the Buenos Aires province of Las Heras, to parents of Spanish, French and Italian backgrounds. In her teens, she began working in a Las Heras restaurant that specialized in typical Argentine food and farm products. Following school, she specialized in kitchen stages with Chef Norbert Ziorjem that took them to Switzerland as well as Argentina. As she worked her way up the kitchen ladder, she helped open three restaurants, Posta Tropical, Junior’s Soufflé, and Puesto del Spinetto in the 1980s, all in Buenos Aires.
From 1988 to 1992 she switched careers to be a fresh product manager for Disco Supermarkets and La Gran Provisions. In 1992, Chef Dolli became an advisor to the Arcor Hotel Group, and she opened her own restaurant, DOLLI, in the Retiro neighborhood. In 1995, she began producing food festivals, first in Buenos Aires, then in Chile, and she also started her own cooking show on television.
In 1997, she moved her restaurant to an elegant corner in the Palermo Chico neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Two years later, in 1999, the Great Chefs team showed up to tape Chef Dolli for the Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs of the World television series.
In 2000, she closed her restaurant, and now consults and serves on many boards such as the Buenos Aires Catering School and Utilisima Satelital, cable TV.