But he's added his own flourishes: turning pies into lavish pithiviers, or referencing Roman cooking in a glorious dish of outrageously gamey hare fillet served with a nutmeg-scented, single semolina gnocco.
Yet my attempts to recreate this glorious dish at home, with its crisp crust and silky interior always ended in disaster and, more often than not, a tofu scramble rather than the stir fry base I was hoping for.
Mr. Gabrynowicz showed his true colors with a marvelous stew of white beans, cockles and speck; hearty lamb bolognese with mint and whipped ricotta; a glorious dish of orecchiette with veal sweetbreads, brown butter, cauliflower and sage, topped with slips of radish; and a perfect winter entree of rosy venison skirted with foie gras dirty rice and pomegranate gastrique.
This is one of those glorious dishes that takes a few store cupboard staples and transforms them into something wonderful – and before you have a pop, salt cod, or baccalà, is a staple in many Italian households, as are olives, capers and dried chilli.
There was a glorious scallop dish, their surfaces coated with crunchy praline, and paired with crisp, fresh apple.
Back then, Porteños, as residents are called, made great snacks: fried empanadas stuffed with shrimp and cheese, for example, or the glorious bar dish known as chorrillana, a rock-heavy, grease-slick mess of French fries, sautéed onions, chopped meat and fried egg.
More rarely, the restaurant is devoted to Quenioux's remarkable cassoulet, a glorious Southwestern French dish of Tarbais beans, preserved lamb, garlic sausage and duck confit, served in a huge copper pot.
Then two glorious veggie dishes: kale with cauliflower and pickled lemon (£3.50) and charred hispi cabbage with fermented shrimp butter (£4).
With a little sugar and mirin, it transforms simple Cornish hens into a glorious teriyaki-like dish.
The pasta dishes were glorious, too, including a simple dish of spaghetti served in a nutty and creamy sauce of pine nuts, red onions and radicchio di Treviso, an elongated type of red chicory.
At the hand-carved wooden counter at the Kawa Semi (Kingfisher) restaurant in Uchiko, I reveled in the glorious deployments of dishes, color and form complimenting each delicious tidbit, mouthful and morsel.
