The Chilean Kitchen: Authentic, Homestyle Foods, Regional Wines and Culinary of Traditions of Chile

Rating:
Summary: A good and useful guide to la cocina chilena
Review: <The Chilean Kitchen> is a practical guide to Chilean cookery, unadorned by glossy paper and the dilutions of too many side-stories that seem to characterize many cookbooks. Some of the sidebars don't even relate very much to food but do offer a glimpse of Chilean rural life. The lack of photos or even drawings of the meals also differs from what must be the prevailing standard in cookbooks for the North American market. There are also some minor technical errors, mostly in the Chilean Spanish spellings, but ironically even in some of the English. It is also evident that the author has concentrated on the central region of Chile since some of what must be conjecture about how people live and eat in Chilean Patagonia is amusing, roughly analogous to saying that people in Arizona survive by eating wild pigs and rattlesnakes. Generally, the recipes contain the ingredients readily available in North America, with English System units (ounces, cups, etc.,) but both Celsius and Fahrenheit cooking temperatures. <Chilean Kitchen> is the sort of book you will get after you have had a pleasant visit to Chile and want to replicate some of what you enjoyed eating there.

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Summary: Chilean Cuisine is more than sea bass
Review: Chilean Kitchen: Authentic, homestyle foods, regional wines, and culinary traditions of Chile

By Ruth Van Waerbeek-Gonzalez

Reviewed by Liz Waters Copyright 1999, All Rights Reserved

Touted as the first comprehensive, contemporary cookbook of Chilean cuisines, this book proves that there is a lot more to Chilean cuisine that sea bass. Like other South American cuisines, Chile's is complex as it is a fusion of European, American and native American cuisines, utilizing native ingredients and the traditions of the many cultures whose explorers visited this land that lies between the Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean. Tastes from the mountains and the seacoasts merge in many unique and exciting dishes.

The book also recommends exquisite Chilean wines to accompany the meals presented in it. Ms. Waerbeek-Gonzales has definitely opened some culinary doors with this exciting new book

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Delicious, rustic, unpretentious, heartfelt, real. Those are some of the adjectives that Ruth Van Waerebeek-González's The Chilean Kitchen brings to the mind of this non-chef reader. The love of the land and of the people seems to have led the author to the wonderful flavors found in the family kitchens where food is shared "in the Chilean style, celebrating their simplicity and serving them with a big heart." The recipes are easy to follow and authentic; they invariably evoke in me vivid images of wonderful meals around my grandmother's table as they bring up the hearty and delicious flavors of long ago. Chilean cuisine sometimes requires quite a bit of patience, yet other times a delicious dish can be produced with little effort. Whatever the case, the gustatory results are beautifully rewarding.

Van Waerebeek-González acknowledges that no two Chilean cooks will agree on any one way to prepare certain dishes, but her recipes do get to the heart of the real Chilean cuisine. I thought the book was, in its own way, an ode to the Chilean kitchen as Neruda's Odas Elementales are to bountiful vegetables and to "caldillo de congrio," a translation of which is found on pp. 114-115. I love the introductions to each recipe: They prepare your senses while providing you with cultural as well as emotional involvement. The sections on Chilean fruits and wines-"the fruits of the vine"-are very informative and provide yet another avenue to cultural appreciation of a country of majestic mountains, prodigious gardens, and generous Pacific waters. This extraordinary lady from Ghent, Belgium, found in Chile the land she had never known but had always loved and wanted to go back to. The Chilean Kitchen is the fruit of that love.

Rating:
Summary: Connoiseur of food, lover of culture
Review: Delicious, rustic, unpretentious, heartfelt, real. Those are some of the adjectives that Ruth Van Waerebeek-González's The Chilean Kitchen brings to the mind of this non-chef reader. The love of the land and of the people seems to have led the author to the wonderful flavors found in the family kitchens where food is shared "in the Chilean style, celebrating their simplicity and serving them with a big heart." The recipes are easy to follow and authentic; they invariably evoke in me vivid images of wonderful meals around my grandmother's table as they bring up the hearty and delicious flavors of long ago. Chilean cuisine sometimes requires quite a bit of patience, yet other times a delicious dish can be produced with little effort. Whatever the case, the gustatory results are beautifully rewarding.

Van Waerebeek-González acknowledges that no two Chilean cooks will agree on any one way to prepare certain dishes, but her recipes do get to the heart of the real Chilean cuisine. I thought the book was, in its own way, an ode to the Chilean kitchen as Neruda's Odas Elementales are to bountiful vegetables and to "caldillo de congrio," a translation of which is found on pp. 114-115. I love the introductions to each recipe: They prepare your senses while providing you with cultural as well as emotional involvement. The sections on Chilean fruits and wines-"the fruits of the vine"-are very informative and provide yet another avenue to cultural appreciation of a country of majestic mountains, prodigious gardens, and generous Pacific waters. This extraordinary lady from Ghent, Belgium, found in Chile the land she had never known but had always loved and wanted to go back to. The Chilean Kitchen is the fruit of that love.

Rating:
Summary: The Chilean Kitchen
Review: I found this to be a wonderful cookbook! I tried the "Arroz con Pollo" and it was delicious! I love to cook, but I think for one who is not a avid cook this is still very easy!

Rating:
Summary: My Chilean husband likes these recipes!
Review: I have dined in homes and restaurants from the north of Chile to the south, and the recipes in this book accurately reflect much of the cuisine. Chile has an outstanding culinary tradition and Ruth Van Waerebeek-Gonzalez understands it. The dishes listed are not only authentically Chilean, but are also dishes that most people in the United States will enjoy.

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Summary: Comida Casera a la chilena
Review: Mirtha Umana-Murray has shared the recipes of three generations of Chileans. They're excellent recipes and you will enjoy the results if you're a "chile" pepper fan. However, with my Chilean husband, I have dined in homes and restaurants from the north to the south of Chile, have also dined in many Chilean homes in the United States, and I have never been served a dish with "heat." I also own a collection of Chilean cookbooks dating from 1925. I believe that while these recipes are traditions of her Chilean family, they are not often tipically Chilean.

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Summary: From Belgium food to Chilean Cuisine.
Review: There are plenty of cookbooks on Mexican, French, Italian and many other ethnic cookery. Almost every collection of cookbooks has at least on of those in their repertoire. Now the Belgium born author of Everyone Eats Well in Belgium has taken her husband's ethnic background to write a cookbook on Chilean Cuisine. Ruth Van Waerebeek-Gonzalez has titled her second cookbook The Chilean Kitchen and has focused on "authentic, homestyle foods, regional wines, and culinary traditions of Chile".

There are a few very long recipes that have broken my cardinal rule of cookbooks - having to turn the page to finish a recipe - however, in general the recipes are designed to be simple and somewhat easy to follow for the experienced cook or a beginner.

Though this is a Chilean cookbook, I found that most of the ingredients are readily available at most markets, and the possibly harder-to-find ingredients have options. Some of the recipes include: Seafood in a Hot, Garlicky Sauce; Spicy Shrimp in Fresh Tomato Sauce; Romaine Omelet Flavored with Bell Pepper and Caramelized Onion; Artichokes Stuffed with Tuna Fish and Celery Salad; Creole Salsa; Swiss Chard, Egg, and Olive Salad; Cream of Corn Soup with Basil and Tomatoes; Rich Chicken Broth with Polenta Dumplings; Rice with Razor Clams and Spicy Sausage; Grilled Sea Bass with Cheese, Oregano, and Chorizo; Baked Beans with Pumpkin and Bell Peppers; Wine-Flavored Soft Meringue with Crème Anglaise; Fried Bow-Tie Pastries; Poached Figs with Walnuts and Sliced Bananas with Maple Syrup.

This book is filled with over 130 recipes which give us a sample of the Chilean cuisine and show the influences of many other culture on their adaptations of foods. There is a section in the back of the book that cover the regional wines if Chile, and several recipes have a variation suggestion. Though each section has a short historical background behind the upcoming recipes, I would have like to seen a little more personalization to each recipe and the family background or maybe her husband's memories behind them. A few pictures or illustrations throughout the book would have also been appealing.

This book is for the cook who likes to cook a little different then Mexican foods. Penguin Putnam's Berkley Publishing and HP books division is the publisher of the Chilean Cookbook. I can only wonder of book number three with be a new fusion of Chilean and Belgium cooking.

Review 3 out of 5 pots

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: You can purchase this book from Walmart.com for only 11 dollars......