When I travel, I rarely enjoy myself so thoroughly and feel so at home that I don’t want to pack up and head home at the end of the journey. But that is exactly what happened on my recent trip to Chile. The beautiful landscapes, fresh seafood, exotic fruit, extraordinary wine, and comfortable climate are only part of the draw. The warmth of the people was really what stole my heart. Our multiple hosts throughout the two-week stay continually one-upped one another in the Chilean tradition of cariñoso or loving. We weren’t just pampered, we were thoroughly enveloped in motherly love!
From the moment we arrived, Paulina Peñaloza and Roberto Manieu of Chilean Gourmet ensured that we made the most of our “business trip” in Chile, with lots of adventurous side trips. First stop was a personalized welcome dinner, hosted by Enrique Delgeon and Betty Stapel of Sanosur, at the Central de Restaurantes, where the director, Chef Bernardo Rebolledo, prepared a heavenly array of courses and desserts centered around Sanosur’s chestnut and mushroom products. I was whisked to heaven with the first hors d’ouevre – Goat Cheese Brucheta with Garbanzo Flour!
A trip to the north with Jose Mingo and Alvaro Riveros, of Neo-Oils, brought us to lush plantations surrounded by what I consider to be the most perfect food, avocados. I was surprised to see these large trees clinging to steep slopes en masse throughout this oldest of avocado growing regions, the Valle Cabildo. Avocado trees are susceptible to
frost but have strong root systems, and thus they fare much better on the protected hillsides than in the frost-prone valley floors. Neo-oils organic avocado groves, the source of our organic Apalta avocado oil, are teeming with ladybugs (natural pest predators) and pollinating honeybees. Gonzalo Ibañez, the farm manager, gave us the ins and outs of organic avocado cultivation, and Jose and Alvaro filled us in on the benefits of unrefined organic avocado oil. Avocados truly are the fruit of the gods. (Learn more about avocado oil).Our next visit brought us to the small but meticulous facility of Origen Vinegars. Enologists Veronica Larrain and Inés Irarrázaval founded this company in 2004 out of frustration at the lack of quality natural vinegars in a country with such exceptional wines. They were soon joined by the
sommelier Carolina Grez, and the three women together have created an exquisite line of unique vinegars. After a thorough tour of their facility and explanation of their unique vinegar production process, we headed off to the Casablanca wine region west of Santiago to get back to the roots of the vinegar. First stop was the House of Morandé winery and restaurant for a specially prepared four-course meal creatively using the Origen vinegars from appetizer to dessert. We then continued on through this beautiful valley and more wine tasting – oh, twist our arms! (learn more about the Origen process.)Our worldwind trip gathered force as we packed up and headed south with Paulina and Roberto of Chilean Gourmet to visit the merken-producing Mapuche people of the Araucania region. When I met Paulina at the San Francisco Fancy Food Show in January of 2007, I fell in love with her and the work she and her husband were doing. In fact, it was meeting Paulina, and learning of the Mapuche Merken Project, that encouraged us to make the leap to launch Zócalo. Since that meeting this visit with the Mapuche community had been high in my sights. And it did not disappoint.
The model behind the Mapuche Project involves seven communities and over 70 Mapuche families, the Universidad Catolico de Temulco, seed funding from the Chilean government, and Chilean Gourmet. This absolutely brilliant model provides the Mapuche families with self-sustaining businesses, while improving the health and education of the full community.
Merken is a spice mix, consisting of the native Cacho de Cabra, or goat’s horn, chile, coriander seed, cumin, and salt. It is made by every Mapuche family and is core to their culinary traditions. We visited several different families to learn about the cultivation, harvesting, and drying process. We then feasted on merken-infused dishes in La Roca, the traditional Mapuche home.
The Mapuches have many native foods in their cuisine that we here in the U.S. have never even heard of: Piñones or giant pine nuts (nothing at all like the European pine nut), make a delicious nutty flour or can be eaten cooked whole and has a similar texture to chestnuts; Elephant garlic from the island of Chiloé along with over 280 varieties of native potatoes; and Chilean hazelnuts (again, completely different from the European variety) that are toasted or ground into flour. We look forward to expanding our relationship with Chilean Gourmet, and the Mapuche people, by bringing these amazing foods to the U.S. and supporting even more Mapuche families throughout Chile.
Chilean Gourmet also works with twenty-five Mapuche families to produce several honeys from trees native to Chile. We had the good fortune to spend a day with Enrique Saenz, a producer of o
ne of the most exquisite and purest honeys I have tasted, honey from the Ulmo Tree. Enrique is a true bee lover, perfecting his art and the purity of his honey, and sharing his knowledge with other beekeepers. I eat my fair share of honey, and after my intensive lesson with Enrique – the Chilean Gourmet honey producers are trained to filter their honey three times to ensure a full-flavored pure honey with no residual wax - I have managed to double my daily dosage. (Learn more about our Chilean honeys).After a side trip to Pucon (Pere and I just had to run up and down some mountains), we headed back to Santiago, and then north again to the Oasis la Campana, an ecological tree reservation that is single handedly saving the Chilean Palm tree from extinction. This ancient tree – the oldest is
over 1000 years old and 30 meters high – has suffered at the hands of palm syrup producers who must kill the tree to harvest the syrup held in its fibrous trunk. In 1995, the Moreno family purchased over 5000 acres of land and established the PALMA foundation to preserve the Chilean Palm and other native species. Since then they have replanted close to two million palm trees throughout Chile. The tree is extremely slow growing (a 10-year-old tree only stands about 6 feet tall) and yields fruit after 60 years, but it is worth the wait. The Coquitos – or mini coconuts – are about the size of a gumball and can be eaten whole (once you get past the rock hard outer shell). With Francisco Moreno we are exploring ways to bring this product to market to help support the work of the reservation and the surrounding communities who live off the proceeds of harvesting coquitos.As you can read, we had a very full trip to Chile, and I have only shared the highlights. We met many wonderful people and companies, learned about a plethora of exciting new foods, ate and drank like royalty (did I mention how spectacular the wine is?!!), and visited beautiful locations from beach (lots of pelicans – I LOVE the pelicans) to vineyards and farmland, to mountain villages and small towns. I am already planning my return trip!
See more pictures of our adventure in Chile....
