My name is Kevin Vaughn.
If you want the short answer: I'm a writer, cook, and artist who's called Buenos Aires home since 2010. The longer answer, and the story of how Devour began, goes back a little further.
The summer before I moved to Buenos Aires, I lived with my grandparents to save some money. Every night, I'd come home from work to find a recipe, a grocery list, and cash waiting on the kitchen counter. My grandfather was an excellent, impulsive cook, but he'd lost his mobility. So I'd head to the grocery store, pick up whatever he was craving, and cook dinner while he instructed me from his favorite seat at the table.
I fell in love with that ritual of sharing a meal. When I arrived in Buenos Aires in 2010, cooking became my favorite way to make new friends. It wasn't a particularly hard sell. Argentines always seem to be thinking about their next meal.
One night, a friend asked, "Why don't we do this every weekend?"
And just like that, I became the group's unofficial private cook.
After three years of dinner parties, another friend asked, "Why don’t you start a supper club?" And so I started MASA, a weekly dinner for 12 strangers hosted in a friend's living room.
One of those strangers happened to be a young writer with plans to turn her personal blog into a full-fledged website about Buenos Aires. She asked, "Why don’t you write food stories?" And soon enough, I was writing restaurant reviews and recipes.
This is something I've always loved about Buenos Aires. All you need is an idea to get started, and you make up the rest as you go.
After a few years of writing and researching, I couldn't ignore the disconnect between the Argentina I knew and the version sold to the rest of the world. When a traveler came to MASA and suggested I offer food tours, my reaction was pretty simple: Yes, obviously.
Devour began in 2016 as a way to bridge the gap. I wanted travelers to discover a little of the Buenos Aires I knew, beyond the Instagram reels and listicles.
MASA recently celebrated its 13th year with a trip to Patagonia to harvest grapes for our first house wine. I continue to write and travel around Argentina, gathering stories for publications around the world. My work has covered everything from Buenos Aires' obsession with unusual pizza toppings to the relationship between bread and Indigenous genocide.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I also became a painter and ceramist, studying underneath local artists. Art has given me another way to understand Buenos Aires and connect with the people who live here.
Luckily, Argentina is a place that lets you dip your pen into all the inkwells.
Today, Devour brings all these interests together through private food tours, art experiences, and personalized travel planning. The idea is much the same as it was when I started hosting dinners: bringing people together, sharing what excites me, and introducing them to something they might not have discovered on their own.
I hope you'll join me.