Chilean charm, part 1

It is hard to believe that more than a week has passed since I returned from my food tour of Chile, perhaps because the events of that week still seem fresh in my mind.

I had very little idea of what to expect, having never been anywhere in South America before. But I knew from past experience on similar tours that our hosts would cram as much into our stay as possible. They did not disappoint. Today I’ll give a brief description of our itinerary; tomorrow I’ll share my impressions and pass on a little of what I learned on our journey.

Our tour guide was Fernando Balart, the marketing coordinator for the Associacion de Exportadores de Chile. The young, red-haired Chilean told us this was only the third tour he had organized; we would not have realized it otherwise, as confident and knowledgeable as he was.

After spending Sunday getting the lay of the land, so to speak, we kicked off our tour with a visit to ASOEX’s offices for a primer on the Chilean fruit industry. Christian Carvajal, ASOEX’s marketing manager for Europe and Asia, and Ricardo Adonis, technical manager for Fundacion para el Desarrollo Fruticola, described the growth of the industry, the marketing efforts surrounding Chile’s push into foreign markets— and some of the challenges growers and exporters face getting their products into those markets—and some of the technical innovations Chilean growers are developing to improve fruit quality and yield.

This was followed by a visit to a nearby packing shed, where we saw how pears were selected, packed and prepared for shipping—mostly by container ships—to overseas markets. After lunch at Ibis de Puerta Varas, a Santiago restaurant specializing in seafood—a familiar theme throughout the week, given Chile’s 2,600-mile coastline—we headed to the airport to board a flight to Temuco, a small town about 500 miles south of Santiago.

From Temuco, we drove further south to Pucon, a resort town on Villarrica lake and in the shadow of the Villarrica mountain—which, we learned, is one of several active volcanoes dotting the Chilean Andes. After a relaxing night, we drove northwest to Gorbea and San Jose Farms to see how blueberries are grown, harvested and prepared for shipping to the U.S. and other countries.

The most fascinating aspect of this visit was the technology used to ensure that blueberries survive the weeks-long passage to the U.S. in the same condition as when they were picked. More on that in a subsequent post.

We returned to Santiago late Tuesday evening and prepared for another hectic day Wednesday, which began with a presentation and tasting by Chile Oliva, the association of Chilean olive oil producers. The olive oil industry in Chile is relatively young, with its principal customers being the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. In the U.S., you are most likely to find Chilean olive oil in Costco and specialty markets.

We sampled three types of olive oil: Arbequina, a mild oil from Spanish olives; Frantoio, a more pungent oil from Italian olives; and Picual, a fragrant oil from olives that originated in the Andalusian region of Spain.

We then visited Escuela International de Artes Culinarias y Servicios, a 500-student culinary school in Santiago. We had a presentation on Chilean foods by instructor David Seeman, a Dutch immigrant who moved to Chile six years ago after several years as a cruise ship chef. We also got the chance to make our own lunch: pebre (a tasty Chilean salsa) lamb empanadas, chupe (a Chilean stew made with seafood) served in fillo pastry cups, a fruit parfait, and lucuma sours, a blended drink made with pisco brandy and lucuma, a South American fruit.

Our appetites more than sated, we headed to a USDA inspection site to see how we inspect the fruit that will we imported to the U.S. Our guide was Jose Granuli, a USDA inspector who was returning to the U.S. the day after our meeting. Jose explained that USDA officers remain on site for 45 days at a time before being reassigned.

Dinner that evening was at Coquineria, an interesting juxtaposition of restaurant with open kitchen and specialty market. We took several photos of the restaurant during our meal, but were forbidden to take any shots of the market area.

In my next post, I will describe the rest of our tour and share some of my impressions and interesting facts we learned along the way. Hasta mañana.