Chilean Cooking Class

Food in an integral part of any culture. Food drives our day, beginning of the day is dictated by breakfast, middle of the day is lunch, end of the day in dinner. Most days we look forward to the next meal, just a few hours until lunch break, just a few more until dinner. Not only is food important to us for sustenance and pleasure, it is vital to our culture.

As Anthony Bourdain says, “context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals.” We remember summer days when we smell grilled hamburgers and sticky, sweet watermelon. To this day, everytime I eat applesauce I think of my Grandma making fresh batches for me and keeping my serving cold, just the way I liked it.  

Food also tells the history of an area. When we think of France we think of wine, cheese, baguette. We know the tastes, textures and styles of food from different places and Chile is the same.

We had the pleasure of cooking authentic and traditional Chilean dishes with the students at the Instituto Maritimo in Playa Ancha. This technical school offers many options for chilean students to start immersing themselves in their chosen career path early. Our students were split into groups and paired with their Chilean peers who walked them through every step of the cooking process.  All under the watchful eye of the two head chefs.

The students were immediatly put to work. Hair nets snapped into place, aprons tied tightly, they were ready to go. Proper knife cuts, empanada folding, cutting an onion without sobbing, lighting a chilean stove and detecting the correct broth color were just some of the lessons for the day. 

The main dishes were: 

1. Arrollado de Huaso- a flattened chicken breast stuffed with vegetables and sausage and rolled up like a present. 

2. Pulmay- a seafood dish with a deep, and seasoned broth  

3. Charquican- a stew of onion, beans, pumpkin, corn, potatoes, seaweed and peas that will fill you up and might have you questioning, this is the vegan dish? 

4. Cazuela- a stew that has a lot of variety in meat and veggies, potatoes, pumpkin, corn, similar to sancocho.

5. Pan Amasado- the traditional dense bread of chile

6. Empanadas- folded pie dough filled with meat, veggies or fruit

7. Sopaipillas- a golden, baked or deep fried circle of heaven made with a pumpkin dough. You can eat it sweet or savory.

8. Pebre- a fresh salsa, called pico de gallo in other countries 

After working hard in the kitchen, everyone got to try the dishes prepared by each group. 

“Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.”

-Anthony Bourdain