Q & A with Pilar Rodriguez

Pilar Rodriguez spent more than a decade in fashion-marketing, but was always enamored by cooking and wine. After recieving her culinary training at the Cordon Blue in Paris where she worked with Christian Le Squer, a three-star Michelin chef, she returned to her native Chile. In the Q&A linked below, she discusses starting a new career as a chef later in life and her concept of “cooking for the wines.”

You were in your late 30s when you decided to go to culinary school. Was it difficult starting your career over in an entirely new industry—particularly one as stressful as a chef—at that stage of your life?

Usually, when people decide to go to cooking school, especially as a second carrier, they often just see the romantic side of cooking and preparing meals. However, the realistic side is that chefs work long, hard hours—it’s a physically tiring job. And when you are 40 and starting over, it’s much more difficult than doing so at an earlier age. By 40, you tend to be established so starting fresh was hard, but I realized I didn’t want to go back to fashion marketing. Today, I really appreciate that [fashion marketing] experience gave me an extraordinary foundation for my new career.

You have forged a unique path in the culinary world by using your passion for wine to develop a new style of cuisine that is inspired by some of Chile’s best wines. Describe the concept of “cooking for the wines.”

While at the Cordon Blue, I lived in Paris for two years. The French are truly passionate about wine. It is a subject they talk about a lot—the new vintages, the right pairing, it’s part of their gastronomic life. We didn’t have those conversations in Chile. When wine distributors came to wine country, they were offered simple hassle-free, rustic meals—steak and salad. In order to sell wine, the wine needs to look and taste perfect. I knew we could do more and started to work with winemakers to figure out how to create meals that would best present the wine. Living in wine country enabled me to gain a different perspective—so much goes into each wine. I started with sauvignon and little by little began testing different foods with each wine and adapted and changed the flavors and ingredients. The balance and flavors can make each wine taste and look better. At the end of the day, we are selling moments and experiences so the right food has to be paired with the right wine. The goal was to help the winemakers better present their meals to wine distributors, importers and exporters.

What are the challenges promoting Chilean food and wine around the world?

Latin food is more than just Mexican food. Chilean food is not hot like Mexican or spicy like Thai—it’s well seasoned. In Latin America, there are a large variety of flavors to discover and merkén is one of them. Spices like merkén bring heat and warmth, not spiciness. Everything different—there are so many flavors—it’s not just tacos and enchiladas.

Aside from wine (obviously), what are your favorite ingredients to use?

Whatever Chile produces—I use only ingredients that are produced in Chile. I like to find new foods and spices from small towns, but they must be locally produced—I want to support Chilean producers.

Where do you find inspiration for your recipes?

Wine is a great inspiration—wine talks to me. Wine drives me to how I will end up preparing a dish.

What is the one food you think everyone should try in their lifetime?

For Westeners, there is nothing like a good ceviche because it’s fresh. And with a sauvignon blanc [such as one from the San Antonio Valley in Chile’s Central Coast, one of the new wine regions], even better. You need really good, fresh fish—ultra fresh—minutes after the fish is caught. If you live in a big city, a really fresh ceviche is great because you don’t always have the opportunity to try that. A lot of restaurants can’t prepare a fresh ceviche, because they don’t have fresh fish, they just have frozen fish.

−Vanessa L. Facenda

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