Every fourth Thursday in November in the US, families countrywide join to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, which literally in Spanish is translated to, "The Day of Active Thanks". How cool that this is a holiday!! Thanksgiving transcends racial, ethnic, political,...
On Saturday, I read in the Wall Street Journal Dorothy Jaiter and Josh Breche's thoughts on Chile's unusual wine varietal, now a flagship grape, Carmenere, as being a risky grape for Chile. I think the real issue was that the examples of Carmenere that...
Life looks pretty damn good right now, at least from this chaise lounge where my feet dangle lazily in the private splash pool. It is hot, very hot. The ice cold Torrontes and 50-plus sunblock are my saviors for slumbering on this lazy late March afternoon in...
On my last trip to the States, I was really excited to see how many Latin cocktails have become mainstream in bars, cocktail lounges, and restaurants. You probably already know them: Mojito, Cuba Libre, Caipirinha, Pisco Sour (Peruvian and Chilean...
Last week in Chicago was a really good dose of time to get to know the city, especially from a more insider aspect since I was hanging with my brother out on the Northwestern side of the city. I thought I would have some initial issues with the early Mid-western...
For the past week, I have been getting Chicago foodies and wine lovers totally jazzed about, and drinking, the exciting wines of South America--Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. This Sunday, I take my show east to my favorite city, New York, to keep spreading the...
I officially feel like a foreigner in my own country. I guess it was in the making. After all, I have now lived abroad over 10 years now. It is funny how I am very connected to US culture from afar but when I jump back in a couple times per year, the daily...
This weekend, I jet to the US for series of South American-driven events. While many of them are with private chef associations like Les Dames d'Escoffier, Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR), New York Women's Culinary Alliance, and universities (including...
If you live in Chile, travel here, or try to google anything about coffee in Chile, you will no doubt come across "Nescafé". Yep, it's rampant. Sure, it seems like an oddity given that we are next door to Colombia, Peru, and Brazil where they grow...
Sunday morning is my favorite day of the week. All the pressure is off wake up up early. There's no traffic honking outside my windows. Even the dog downstairs that barks incessantly is asleep. The city feels so peaceful. I also love that it's perfectly acceptable to...
You know the sensation. You are packed out, weighed within the luggage allowance, and are ready to roll. Then you look at the bed and spot that 2-inch thick, 4-pound monster of a guidebook that you have to schlep with you everywhere on vacation. If you...
You know, with all the zesty sauces in South America, how come chimichurri steals all the thunder? Chileans make at least a dozen versions of mean pebres, from spicy-as-hell green chili and cilantro to the garden vegetable variety. Uruguay too has its creole...
Feliz cumpleaños Chile! Today Chile rings in another Independence day, kicking off the year of its Bicentennial birthday in a big way. Colloquially referred to as "Dieciocho", meaning 18, the day actually celebrates Chile's official rupture from Spain on...
Since we moved to our little interim apartment (just the office, a galley kitchen, “meeting” room, and bedroom), life has been crazy busy. Crazy busy as in we have so much work between our growing business, the cookbook we are writing/photographing, and...
In Chile, traditional cooking vessels are made with greda, natural clay. Much of greda is still hand thrown the homes of dusty country towns throughout the central valley like Pomaire (terra cota color ), near Pichilemu (fleshy colored), and in the south...
The first of September begins to wake Chileans from their deep sleep of winter hibernation. The weather turns spring like with orchards blooming in an array of white and pink blossoms. The days get longer, the sun warmer. The hills are emerald green and the...
Congrio con Ensalada Tibia de Habas-Longaniza To be honest, I didn’t really like favas at all when I first tasted them as a college student in Chile. My host family boiled the hell of out of them to the point of a drab olive green and ate them, including the bitter...
Hacedor de Mundos, Cabernet Franc Reserva 2006 I will confess that this wine has been on my radar for a long time. For one reason or another, perhaps because it was Cabernet Franc which kind of came off as "uninspiring", I put off trying it. On my last visit to my...
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