Pop Up Restaurants in Santiago, Chile
Pop-ups, Puertas Cerradas, and one-off joint dinners between chefs are trending right now in Santiago, Chile. Patrick Hieger reveals where to go.
Pop-ups, Puertas Cerradas, and one-off joint dinners between chefs are trending right now in Santiago, Chile. Patrick Hieger reveals where to go.
Boragó has evolved into the Chilean restaurant, focusing on Chilean products and Chilean dishes, which I have long expected would be found here. Almost three thousand miles in length, Chile has a range of products – found in different latitudes and altitudes – that is unparalleled on this earth.
Santiago, Chile has very suddenly become Latin America’s center of craft beer. Unlike the beer in the more-German influenced south of Chile, Santiago’s micro-brew scene has a much wider set of influences that extends to the UK and the Pacific coast of the United States. While there are no beer tours in Santiago per se, several of the city’s top breweries do open their doors to visitors.
Chile’s expanding craft beer scene is still going strong, particularly in Valparaiso where a handful of small breweries are thriving.
All eyes on Chile after the dramatic mine rescue and let’s not forget last year’s earthquake that devastated the region south of the capital, it’s an appropriate time to examine Santiago’s blossoming food scene. A new wave of talented chefs, from within Chile and from abroad, are rapidly changing the city’s culinary landscape. There is renewed in old markets and indigenous Mapuche ingredients, while wine bars and bistros are transforming once decrepit districts into cool new food hoods.
Liz Caskey is a chef, sommelier, food/wine writer, and owner of Liz Caskey Culinary & Wine Experiences, a luxury travel design firm based in Santiago, Chile offering culinary and wine-focused itineraries throughout Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. She is also the author of the recently launched cookbook, Knack South American Cooking (Globe Pequot Press, 2010) available in the US market.
The last five years have seen a boom in artisanal beer-making in Chile and there are anywhere between 70 and 90 microbreweries active in the country, ranging from backyard businesses to much larger operations. Most brewers are concentrated in the Lakes District south of Santiago, from Valdivia to Puerto Montt, as well as places further afield. These brewers are creating a significant turning point for Chilean beer.
Cookbook Author, Tour Leader, and Foodie Liz Caskey is a resident of Santiago, Chile, which felt the effects of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred this past Saturday February 27th. At the time of writing, more than 700 people have been reported killed in the quake and aftershocks have continued to frighten residents. The epicenter of the quake happened off the coast of Maule, not far from the city of Concepción, which has seen the most damage. Media reports in the United States keep referring to the devastation in Southern Chile (in my opinion Southern Chile starts south of Temuco) and give the impression of a total collapse of infrastructure. Here Caskey answers a few questions about what is actually going on:
In downtown Santiago, Chile there sits an always crowded market known as Mercado Central. On tours of downtown its a standard tourist stop, though it has yet to lose it’s authenticity as this photo reveals. Seafood is the draw, either from the overpriced eateries in the center where old school… Read More →