Meet Pedro
Pedro grew up in Argentina, where empanadas are not a snack. They are the food of Sunday tables, family celebrations, and after-school kitchens. He watched his grandmother fold pastry for fifty years, learning the technique that gets passed on more by watching than by writing anything down. The repulgue, the traditional half-moon fold, is a small piece of muscle memory. You either know how to do it or you learn from someone who does.
He moved to Sydney and worked in the food industry for years before starting Argentum. The idea for the brand was simple. Sydney had plenty of good Argentinian food, but nobody was doing empanadas properly: made in Bondi Beach with the traditional technique, real ingredients, and the flavours that people who grew up eating them actually recognise.
The Bondi Beach kitchen
Argentum is run from a commercial kitchen in Bondi Beach. Pedro is there most mornings before sunrise, prepping fillings and folding dough for the day's orders. Everything is made fresh, in small batches, using recipes he inherited and refined. The team is small. The standards are not.
Argentum operates from a private production kitchen, with pre-arranged pickup in Bondi Beach and Waverley, Sydney-wide delivery, and a stall at Northside Produce Market in North Sydney every 1st and 3rd Saturday. The model keeps costs down, quality up, and lets Pedro focus on what actually matters: the empanadas.
The five flavours
Slow-cooked grass-fed beef brisket
Free-range chicken, green olives, capsicum
Three cheeses, caramelised onion
Vegan. Grilled mushroom, spinach, kale
Argentinian-Lebanese fusion, minced beef
Pedro's approach is to keep the range tight. Five flavours, each one made properly, rather than a long menu of average options. Every recipe is tested against the same benchmark: would it be served at a family table in Argentina. If the answer is no, it does not go on the menu.
The philosophy
Empanadas in Argentina are not fast food. They are honest food. Slow-cooked fillings, real pastry, no shortcuts. Pedro built Argentum around the belief that Sydney is ready for that standard: a food culture that appreciates a properly made empanada the way it appreciates a properly made pizza or a properly made dumpling.
That means using free-range chicken instead of the cheapest option. Slow-cooking beef brisket for hours instead of minutes. Making the vegan Patagonia empanada from scratch with grilled vegetables rather than reheating a filling. Small choices, repeated every day, that add up to the difference between an empanada and an Argentum empanada.
Where to find Argentum
Order for delivery anywhere in Sydney at argentumempanadas.com. Pickup free from Bondi Beach by pre-arranged appointment. Catering for corporate events, birthday parties, and boat parties from 20 to 500 plus guests. Or come say hello at Northside Produce Market in North Sydney every 1st and 3rd Saturday, where the empanadas are baked and fried fresh in beef tallow. Traditional Argentinian style.