Two Sundays ago, the first Sunday Suppers communal dinner party in Chile, and South America, was born. Thirty people came together between guests and organizers in an evening celebrating local end-of-winter produce, food artisans, and a few of Chile’s finest wines and pisco.
It was totally magical.
The dinner was the manifestation of my longtime dream to co-create an event with my friend, chef Alvaro Romero, and unite some of the producers we feature on our journeys in Chile for our travelers. I had been itching to do a meaningful local event and I was greatly inspired by the global communal dinner party movement, Sunday Suppers, started by Karen Mordechai. Every season across the globe, hosts open their homes (or studios) and put together themed dinner parties where food-loving locals can join. There are a score of cities across the US, Europe, and even Australia, but South America was not represented.
Certainly it seemed like the perfect opportunity, so I wrote them to inquire about hosting one in Santiago, and things began to materialize.
First and foremost, these dinners are all about community and certainly I could not have pulled it off without the support of my amazing collaborators who are all passionate about what they do and brought something special to the table, quite literally.
We held the event in the intimate space of Atelier Cristian Donoso, who so generously opened his doors to us. Cristian Donoso is a talented ebanista who makes (by hand) stunning furniture that is truly unique pieces of art. His Atelier, which is a showroom but feels like an intimate, exquisitely decorated house, has a gorgeous kitchen space and dining area that became the perfect stage for our dinner.
The Atelier was also conveniently located near Chef Alvaro’s new restaurant, La Mesa (opening soon!!). In discussing the menu based on the Sunday Suppers 2019 winter recipes, Alvaro decided to bring a “preview” of La Mesa’s food philosophy and incorporate the farm-to-table concept. He also invoked his outstanding kitchen and service team that made the evening flow perfectly. More on the menu below.
Marybeth Bentwood, of Brand Elevation Communications, who’s a PR guru focused on wines and spirits, orchestrated the impressive line up of Chilean wines that paired perfectly with each course, and also suggested to serve Chile’s most refined pisco as a nice ending to the meal (good call!).
Ignacia Murtagh, a talented designer and textile/ceramic artist, contributed the sleek vases for the tables and the design of the flower arrangements, made with one of my favorite seasonal flowers, ranunculus.
And of course, there are the wonderful people who came…I outreached to all my networks and was amazed at the outpouring of people wanting to join. It was a congregation of Chile and beyond; a uniting of cultures, languages, ages, walks of life, friends, strangers, all brought together by a love of good food and wine.
Since we are in opposite seasons in Chile, we used the winter menu known as “Harmony” as the base and tweaked it slightly to make it more in tune with some special seasonal Chilean ingredients.
Upon arrival, we served guests offered a glass of the Miguel Torres Estelado sparkling rose made with the totally Chilean Pais grape. It’s the perfect palate opener that’s dry and crisp with fine bubbles. Other folks preferred a favorite Chardonnay from the south of Chile Aquitania Winery called Sol de Sol which is very Burgundian in style. Contrary to what many think of Chardonnays, this is one has great acid so it feels very alive on the palate yet is silky and easy to drink on its own or with food. Crunchy vegetable crudités and a tasty yogurt sauce were passed and people mingled until we sat down to eat at 7:45pm. In Chilean fashion, the aperitivo was extended a little longer.
The first course was a rich, velvety soup made from confit de coliflor, cream of cauliflower. A grating of fresh black truffles from Jordi Grau and his awesome project, Trufas Grau, in the southern lake district of Chile made the dish. What a luxury! The soup paired brilliantly with the De Martino Single Vineyard Chardonnay called “Tres Volcanes”, from the southern Malleco Valley. This Chardonnay was brilliant—deep, fresh, mineral-laden and “juicy” in the mouth, we could not stop drinking it (until it was gone!).
The main course was served family-style and the focus was the dazzling produce from the organic farm La Granja del Chef. It was an explosion of colors, tastes, and textures, which Alvaro so masterfully presented: Roasted baby eggplant drizzled with vinaigrette, roasted tri-color carrots, charred onions, radicchio salad with sour cherry dressing. I could have made dinner just out of the veggies until the tender grilled, free-range chicken from Granja Tinajacura appeared alongside creamy polenta. The flavors tangoed perfectly with the red wine, Milla Cala, a show-stopping red blend from Vik Winery. Such deliciousness in the glass…a graceful wine where everything is in perfect balance in its complexity, aromas, and body.
That’s the beauty of food, and wine (grapes!), that are cultivated, or raised, with so much care. When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, cooking very simply is the best approach and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like it is. The same can be said of terroir-driven wines, like those we savored at the dinner. Each wine was so unique, authentic, and truly expressed the corner of Chile where it was grown.
For dessert, we veered lighter with a barely sweet option: Carmenere (red wine) poached pairs and Alvaro made homemade creamy goat cheese. We continued with the wine before serving the palate-bending chocolate from Obolo.
Mark Gerritts, founder, owner, and chocolate maker of Obolo Chocolate, was kind enough to share their brand new line of chocolates entitled “Sabores Endemicos”, Native Flavors. These are seven different flavors found in Chile from the northern desert to southern Patagonia paired with different types of chocolate (white, milk, dark) and percentages of cacao. He took over a year to develop these bars so we were quite honored to be among the first in Chile to taste them. We moved from the White Chocolate with earthy Murta berries to the Atacama Desert’s citrusy Rica Rica with 50% Dark Milk Chocolate. The crunchy, and addictively salty, 70% Cahuil Flor de Sal was a universal favorite and things ended on a spicy note with the 70% Merken (smoked chili pepper) that was piquant and very unusual.
The artisanal pisco (grape brandy) Waqar was served after the first round of chocolate. It was poured “neat” and surprised everyone. Much of the pisco in the Chilean market is quite rustic and used in cocktails to cover the flavor. However, this pisco is another story of refinement. The nose was delicate and floral. In the mouth, the body was silky and smooth and not overbearing. It was a total pleasure to sip and the perfect ending to the meal for the sobremesa, that moment after dinner when conversation carries on over the wine, or pisco, in this case.
I bounced between tables to chat with guests and loved watching how people were bonding over the food and wine. New friendships were formed. Connections were made. I admired the beauty of what was happening. It’s that magic moment when the momentum of a party becomes its own thing. People are sharing, enjoying, laughing, and being in the moment.
And with the beautiful surroundings, everything was cloaked in a soft, radiant glow. My heart was exploding with happiness. My dream had come true! How amazing is that something as simple as “dinner” can be so transformative; that the simple act of eating together can feed the soul on such a deep level.
And that’s just it; it wasn’t only about the food and wine. It was all the love and intention that had been poured into every step of the dinner; the atmosphere and space that were created; the openness with which everyone arrived. That’s how the evening blossomed and why it resonated with everyone.
Sunday Suppers in Chile was a chance for all of us to get out of hiding, out of our houses, out of our normal social circles, out of our own kitchens, and be open to experiencing something new. And ultimately that’s what people take home—the memories of the flavors and great conversations that were had.
I want to give a big thank you to everyone who believed in my idea to host this dinner, supported it, and all the guests who trusted in us to come. Cannot wait until the next one!
