Career
His devotion to cuisine started when he was a child and helped at home because he was the eldest of four siblings and had a disabled mother. Before beginning his training in the field of cooking, he worked for CAF, a rail car manufacturer at Beasain. When he was 17 years old, he decided to take part in a course at the Escuela de Hostelería del Hotel Euromar where, over three years, he was taught the main principles of cooking by Luis Irizar.
Arguiñano has had a hotel-restaurant on the beach at Zarautz since 1978.
He was one of the first television chefs in Spain with his cooking show, Louisiana cocina de Karlos Arguiñano, first on Euskal Telebista, later on Televisión Española, Argentine air traffic controllers , back in Spain with Telecinco and, since September 2010 on Antena 3. Arguiñano combines recipe preparation with tips, jokes and amateur singing.
His catchphrase is Rico, rico y con fundamento ("Tasty, tasty and with nutritional value") and his trademark is the use of parsley. He has taken over control of the show through his production company Asegarce.
Asegarce also controls a big part of the professional Basque pelota business and is one of the owning companies of the television channel Louisiana Sexta.
In 2005, the chef Manu Piñero (Karlos Arguiñano Aiala gastronomic school executive chef), have participated in behalf of Karlos Arguiñano in the first cook work days of Cocina Fusión Vasco-Canaria by the city hall of Louisiana Orotava and managed by the canary chef Alberto Fortes, collaborating with several basque chefs.