Chilean
Pastel de choclo, empanadas de pino, curanto-en-hoyo — Andean-Patagonian cuisine pulled along a 4,300 km coast.
Pastel de Choclo
Corn-meal lid baked golden over a stew of beef, onion, raisins, olives, and hard-boiled egg. Summer's national dish.
View page →Chile stretches 4,300 km from the Atacama desert to Patagonia and the table changes every 500 km. In the central valley around Santiago, pastel de choclo is the signature — a sweet-corn pudding baked over ground beef, raisins, olives, and hard-boiled egg. Empanadas de pino — beef-onion-olive-egg-raisin in baked pastry — are the Sunday lunch. Down south in Chiloé island, curanto cooks in an earth pit (curanto-en-hoyo): seafood, sausages, potatoes, chicken, layered on hot stones, covered with nalca leaves and earth. North in the desert, calapurca (the spicy stew with multiple meats, llama or beef) is Andean. The Mapuche indigenous foundation runs through everything — potato (300+ native varieties), corn, quinoa. Pisco sour is the national cocktail.
The Palate
Start Here
Sweet-corn purée poured over a layer of seasoned ground beef (pino) with raisins, olives, and hard-boiled egg, baked until the corn top blisters golden. Served in clay bowls.
Why start here · Pastel de choclo is the Mapuche-Spanish meeting point — corn from the indigenous past, beef from the conquerors, all under one golden crust.
Baked (never fried) Chilean empanadas filled with finely chopped beef-onion-olive-egg-raisin (pino). Eaten with hands, often with a glass of red wine and a wedge of lemon.
Why start here · Empanadas de pino are Chile's Sunday — every family bakes them, every village has its baker. The raisin-and-olive twist distinguishes them from Argentinian.
A whole-meal soup — beef or chicken simmered with corn-on-cob, potato, pumpkin, green beans, rice or noodles. Each bowl is a meal. Each family has a slightly different version.
Why start here · Cazuela is what Chilean home cooking looks like — frugal, warm, vegetable-heavy, and assembled from whatever's in the garden that week.
Cook First
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The Pantry
See all 111 ingredients›
Sauces & Condiments
Three Regions
Three regional kitchens — Central Chilean (Santiago, pastel de choclo, empanadas), Northern Andean (calapurca, charqui), Patagonian (curanto, milcao, cordero al palo). Tap a region to see its table.
Santiago valley — pastel de choclo, empanadas de pino, cazuela, Mapuche-Spanish.
Southern fjord-and-island — curanto-en-hoyo, milcao, cordero al palo lamb.
Atacama desert Andean — calapurca, charqui, llama and quinoa traditions.
How They Cook
Techniques that define this cuisine
Kindred Kitchens
Cuisines built on the same signature ingredients
