Aunts, uncles, grandmothers and children, bustling in and out of the kitchen, balancing pots, plates, and cups, and wearing big smiles. My friends, flushed with anticipation as the Curanto (clams, shrimp, mussels, sausages, steamed bread, vegetables and ancient potatoes) is scooped steaming from a giant pot onto our plates. A sturdy local wine raises the temperature a little more as we laugh, joke and plunge into the abundance stacked before us. This famous cuisine of Chiloé Island, in the south of Chile, is not a meal, it is a celebration of their isolated sea dependent life.

Our Gaucho chef, glowing red with sweat, strips to his balloon pants, regales us with his adventures, shows off his knife throwing skills and tends to the racks of ribs on the barbeque pit. A brimming glass of Mendoza Malbec or Quilmes beer belays the hunger pains as we enjoy a folk dancing and music show. Finally, our plates piled high with juicy ribs, fresh vegetable salad and hearty bread, we gather around the picnic tables and savor a traditional Argentine parrillada.

What is the food like in Chile and Argentina? A fair question, and frequently asked by the folks that travel with us to these two delightful destinations. In addition to natural factors such as climate, soils, irrigation water, pests and elevation, the history and the people impart a potent influence on the cuisine.

Red, black, brown and white Argentine cattle are rushed from grass rich Pampas to Buenos Aires’ livestock market and the rest of the world. Grass finished, fresh, lean and tender, most steak lovers say there is no better.

In the semi-desert valleys north of Santiago, growing season temperatures push 100 degrees at 3pm and drop to 50 degrees at 3am. This concentrates the sugars in the young Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, and with complete control of water uptake, Errázuriz, Von Seibenthal and others in these valleys produce unique and award winning red wines.

Just over the Andes is Mendoza and San Juan, where young soils impart potent flavors to onions and garlic produced here in abundance. This region is also home to Malbec, and according to most wine connoisseurs, the best place to produce this hearty red wine. Add some cheese from next door Cordoba’s Holstein cows and you will understand why the Italian cuisine of Argentina is special.

The central valley of Chile is a mirror image of California’s Central Valley, but with abundant snow fed water and clean air. It is the horn of plenty for South America and isolated from the world by the Atacama desert, Andes, Pacific and Antarctic. These natural barriers block out obnoxious pests. Fresh fruits and vegetables are still produced with only a light application of pesticides, if any. Tomatoes taste like they just came from grandma’s garden, peaches arrive in the market ripe and ready to eat, and avocados are sold along the road in 2 kilo bags for $2.00. 

The teeming zooplankton and phytoplankon off Chile’s coast and in Chile’s fiords impart a different flavor to the King Crab, shrimp, oysters, clams and finfish harvested in great abundance. Ten years ago it was rare to see salmon on restaurant menus. Now that Chile is the largest producer of farmed salmon in the world, Chilean chefs vie with each other creating something different and new with this locally farmed product.

Blend these natural advantages with 400 years of Spanish, English, German, French and Italian immigration and the result is an incredible blend of flavors, textures and presentations. Bratwurst, kuchen and pilsner are found everywhere in the south of Chile, the destination of Germans, Austrians and Yugoslavs arriving during the 19th century.

Afternoon tea led by sweet cakes and sweet wine, followed by paté sandwiches and tea is one of the legacies of the English immigration. The wonderful cakes and breads of Rosario and Santa Fe are legacies of a more recent immigration of Jewish pioneers to this region.

Chilean and Argentine chefs are inventive, just like chefs the world over. But it was probably the gauchos that invented matte in Argentina. This universally consumed slightly narcotic tea is served at home, at work, at conferences, in the streets, on the pampas, on the fishing boats- everywhere. Peure is a Chilean specialty of salsa tomato spiced with onion, garlic, green pepper and what ever else each chef, mama and grandma decide to add. Pastel de papa or choclo is a casserole of meat, vegetables, olives, boiled eggs covered with baked whipped potatoes (papas) or creamed sweet corn (choclo). It is a staple of all country restaurants in Chile.

A traditional pisco sour clears our palette, if not our heads, for a paté of artichoke appetizer. This is followed by a finely baked Chilean sea bass with papa Duquesne and asparagus. Dessert is also traditional and a specialty of the house, flan.

What is pisco? Five different types of muscatel grapes are blended and fermented to 13 percent alcohol, and again to 16 percent. Only the intense grape sugar concentration made possible by desert conditions can produce such high alcohol content. The resulting wine is then distilled to 89 percent alcohol, and aged in American oak for six months. At bottling, this is diluted to 30, 35, 40, 45 or 50 percent, depending on the market.

Perhaps the pisco sour epitomizes Chile more than any other food. The secret is three to four parts pisco (depending on the alcoholic content), one part limon de pica (perhaps key limes are the closest we have in the U.S.), sugar to taste, and vigorous shaking with ice. Each connoisseur adds or deletes to make his pisco sour more personal, or better.

Tonight’s dinner is in Coco Loco’s rotating restaurant overlooking the ocean and city. The machas a la parmesana (surf clams oven baked in Parmesan cheese sauce) is exquisite. This is followed by fresh farmed salmon lightly seasoned with cilantro and lemon on a bed of rich rice, lightly steamed fresh vegetables, and Chilean salad (thinly sliced sweet onions and tomatoes seasoned with salt, virgin olive oil and lemon). A chilled Sauvignon Blanc enhances the delicate flavors.

Just down the street from Florida, in the heart of Buenos Aires, we find a narrow little restaurant featuring pasta. The menu is limited, but the servings are not! The steaming taglitelli or ravioli is buried under tomato sauce laced with pungent garlic and onion straight from the San Juan valley. Who knows where the wine came from, and who cares. Spilling out black and full of tannins from its unlabeled bottle, it is the perfect compliment to our transplanted Italian menu.

Sauvignon blanc, empanadas, carmenere, congrio, curanto, fresh beef, pisco, lucuma, Malbec, merengue, fresh lamb, locos, daily fresh bread... what else can you ask for? Just more time to enjoy and savor.