Tevis Spezia loves to travel and has negotiated a month off to be able to recharge from his hectic nonprofit job. This year his destination was Chile, landing first in Santiago. With friends in Santiago there was plenty to do and still he found time to take a cooking class with his friend Edmond.
Tevis has cooked since his senior year in high school and he’s developed some skills from cooking with friends weekly in San Francisco and taking some classes in Southeast Asia. He’s also game to try new things. Based on past good experiences, he went on Trip Advisor and found a class.
They walked to the markets and took the subway to the kitchen. The teaching chefs had already prepared the dough to make dosladitas–a Chilean bread that is similar to sourdough that you eat with salsa or butter. The class put the bread dough in the oven and prepared the salsa (pebre). They also made ceviche. No recommendation here (Tevis is not a fan of fish, cooked or raw). They mixed up pisco sour cocktails (which can make you invisible but that is a tale for another day). The menu was rounded out with a pork and potato dish (Chorrillana de Cerdo) and a Panacota de Chirimoya dessert.
All of the food was very tasty. Tevis thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would recommend it to anyone spending time in Santiago.
Cooking classes are a great way to get to know a culture more intimately. Taste preferences are created over a lifetime. We assume pumpkin pie is delicious to everyone, but when I asked the chef at Moreton’s in St. Heliers/Auckland to make one for our family Thanksgiving dinner, he scrapped it because it tasted off to him. He remade it with butternut squash. And this in a country that eats pumpkin all the time.
The recipes and the knowledge of how to make them are the ultimate souvenir to take home.
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