The 58-year-old, who 21 years ago founded Patagonia Chocolates along with his wife and fellow Argentinian, Lorena Giallonardo, had two obsessions growing up — hang gliding and cooking, initially as a pastry chef.
At 17, he started flying, and at 18, he and his three siblings opened a small bakery — it became three bakeries — in Buenos Aires.
They eventually employed 25 to 30 people, but "one moment I said to my brothers and sister, ‘look, I don’t want to do this any longer, I want to fly’".
Moving to Florida, in the United States, he and a friend taught people hang gliding and he learnt to fly small planes.
Gimenez then moved to Sydney, working for hang gliding pioneer Bill Moyes, then returned to Argentina and opened a flight park with two friends.
By 2002, however, Argentina was embroiled in a financial crisis — "I thought, ‘I’m over this s..., it’s always the same thing over and over’".
Looking to raise a family in a safe environment, he and Lorena moved to Queenstown, where Gimenez had lined up a pilot’s job with hang gliding company, Antigravity.
On about his second day, because Queenstown reminded him of the Patagonian resort, Bariloche, which is famous for its chocolates, he looked for a chocolate shop and, to his surprise, could not find one.
"I said, ‘if one day I get residency, I want to open a chocolate factory’."
After two and a-half years’ flying, and gaining residency, he and Lorena did just that — opening Patagonia Chocolates in a small courtyard store in Arrowtown.
Their hand-made chocolates reflected not just his Argentinian background but also his Italian and Spanish heritage.
It became an instant success, "and six months later I said to my wife, ‘we probably need to open a store in Queenstown’".
They opened a lakefront restaurant, where Momentos By The Lake is now, where they introduced a dessert concept.
Originally their ice cream came from a Dunedin company, but before long they were making their own — "we managed to get a loan from the bank because ice cream machines are very expensive".
After the machine arrived he recalls working about 19 hours a day — ice cream represents half their sales these days.
They expanded to Queenstown Airport and Wānaka, where they began roasting coffee.
Then, 10 years ago, they opened their flagship Rees St shop, just after setting up an online store.
Nowadays, they employ up to 120 staff over summer, and win awards regularly.
A big one was scooping the supreme champion boutique award for their Hazelnut Cremino at the 2023 New Zealand Ice Cream and Gelato Awards.
Gimenez admits he is "obsessed with perfection, especially when it comes to food".
As an example, with the Cocktail Bonbons which won gold at the recent NZ food producer awards, "we worked on that recipe for a year before we launched it".
He told Radio NZ: "I never give myself 10 points when I cook anything."
He will buy expensive equipment just to make one ingredient.
"It’s always thinking completely outside the box, that’s the key for me.
"I think this is what the hang glider gave me — the ability at looking at everything from up above."
Perhaps his most out-of-the-box idea was buying an 8-hectare Central Otago orchard last year.
That not only gives him cherries, apricots and nectarines for his sorbets and the like, it has also given him space to build a factory to produce Patagonia’s offerings.
"The factory is going to be 100% electric, all the company will be electric.
"Probably we’ll be the first company in the world producing ice cream, roasting coffee and making chocolates to be carbon-neutral."
Not that he’s a recent convert to sustainability.
"I’ve been driving an electric car for nine years.
"We live in a house that has 80 solar panels on the roof and has three Tesla power walls, and the house is completely self-sufficient."
In addition to their home near Arrowtown, they also have one on the Otago Peninsula — just the Pacific Ocean away from South America — which was handy when their son attended Dunedin’s John McGlashan College.
"I was going back and forth, and that’s how I came across the orchard for sale."
Gimenez says the factory will also enable them to expand to Auckland and Christchurch.
Not that he has any intention of leaving Queenstown — "I absolutely love this place".
Apart from still working huge hours, he enjoys a little fly boarding, e-foiling and boating, and he and Lorena also try to make it home once a year.
As for the ‘ingredients’ behind his success, "you can achieve whatever you want as long as you have the right attitude and you work hard".
