Meet Lautaro Gigante | Del Campo Empanadas Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lautaro Gigante and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lautaro, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Here at Del Campo, We strive to bring a piece of our love and culture to the streets of Keller. Importing the culinary essentials to make authentic Argentine empanadas is a difficult task that faces many international challenges on its way to Keller. We like to think our success has to do with the love behind the craft. All of our food is homemade by hand and from scratch, cooked and sold same day essentially. Daily we test and tweak our products for a perfect taste, each flavor is carefully portioned in each empanada to make every bite balanced.
The most important factor is our family root, we come from a ranch in Argentina that our grandparents fostered. A Generation later …
All of our culinary ideas translate in our food made with the same love and same family. Resulting in our fantastic authentic taste, we love it and we know our community will love every part of it as well.

What should our readers know about your business?
Our whole life we ate this food growing up and a few years ago momma Del Campo started selling empanadas from our home here in Keller , back then we sourced everything locally but as the business started becoming more demanding it was clear we had to get a store front , with that momma Del Campo decided to turn it up a notch and start importing our essentials like dough and condiments from Argentina just to have that authentic flavor and a constant reminder of our home and our culture. As the Pandemic hit our new home of the United States of America we were forced into a difficult decision , as we were in the process of opening already it was either we open up and set up COVID guide lines for food pick up including masks , 6 feet and contact-less curbside pickup…or we stay closed till it blows over and we continue to pay a high monthly premium for our location here on beach st.
To keep the dream alive we had to open regardless of the crisis and we’re glad we did because we are still here today thanks to that decision.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If I had some friends come to visit me for a weekend, I would probably take them to the Stockyards here in Fort Worth. Between the shops and authentic Texas BBQ it is the perfect place to go for an afternoon. I could make a day out of going to the stockyards. There is truly something for everyone.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The Del Campo family wants to recognize our founding mother “La Oma” our German grandmother who fled from Germany to Argentina as a young girl with her family to start a new life during the world war 2. Raised our family with a cultural German and Argentine mix of recipes that led to a culinary evolution.
We want to also recognize the dedication of the whole Gigante family the parents as well as the children sacrifice there daily life for the better of our newest child … Del campo empanadas we all dedicate much time and effort to ensure that our dream is realized and our culture is shared with the community.

Website: www.delcampoempanadas.com

Instagram: delcampo_empanadas