RODOLFO GUZMÁN
in a bakery that served breakfast. He went from pot washer to making desserts, including biscuits and cakes and found that he enjoyed it. On his return, enthused by the experience, his friend suggested he go to cookery school. “I thought why not? It was easier and shorter than a normal degree,” he says. It turned out he was very good at it too. Those years as a young chef coincided with the transformation of his country – formerly among the poorest in the region. Chile became a dynamic and financially healthy country and it showed on many levels, including in the foodservice sector. “All of a sudden restaurants serving all sorts of cuisines – Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese – started appearing and Santiago became this cosmopolitan city and started to sparkle financially,” says Guzmán.
Dreams of Spain In step with this, personality chefs were being given an increasing showcase on TV screens and Guzmán went in search of those passionate professionals who were serious about sourcing and cooking. His first cookbook was Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook. Yet, he was disappointed when he joined the team in a Santiago restaurant; the chef, he says, was not in touch with his team. So, when a friend told him what was happening in Spain – hard as it is to imagine today, in those days before social media knowing what happened across the Atlantic Ocean was not a given – his mind was made up. “He told me about this mythical restaurant called El Bulli and this place called the Basque Country and I just thought wow,” he says. “I knew I had to leave this reality that I didn’t want to accept and go to this new world – now that I knew it existed.” What followed were years of learning
and growing in Spain. Though he had first attempted to gain a stagiaire [intern] place at Keller’s French Laundry, he was told US immigration laws didn’t allow workers from his country. So, he went to
Madrid and later to the Basque Country. “These were places that helped me dream. I was so happy, and I thought, this is what I am looking for,” he says. “This was the last piece of the puzzle.” Despite this sense of professional
satisfaction and his personal accomplishments, he decided to return to Chile. “I am a person who is led by instinct, and I just felt in my gut that I needed to go home. I thought I will be able to feed people with what I have in my head,” he explains. He was clear about the mission: to explore Chile’s vast natural larder, with a wealth of ingredients not found in other locations and serve delicious food native to the country. At the end of 2006 he took on a
small restaurant and opened Boragó with excitement and high expectations. It was to be a bumpy ride. “At the time of opening the restaurant
I was still in my twenties and my ideals were stronger than my experience,” he says. “I would love to say that I did really well but there were many disasters.”
Learning to love local The main challenge was that the local diners resisted his concept. The philosophy was simple – this was a restaurant that was 100% Chilean – but it turned out that his intended customer group wanted foreign food, they were much more interested in eating fish flown in from Japan or prosciutto and mozzarella from Italy. “Let me just say that being a Chilean cook who used ingredients from here that were considered normal and unremarkable was a problem,” he recalls. Charging for local products was illogical – “the price was linked to luxury and luxury was linked with what came from abroad. We had a major problem.” The suppliers he worked with echoed
that view. When the restaurant ordered boxes of wild produce it was met with surprise – this was the food people eat at home, not considered fine dining.
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“I just felt in my gut that I needed to go home. I thought I will be able to feed people with what I have in my head”
Guzmán is now enjoying cooking for a restaurant full of diners from around the globe enjoying Chilean cuisine
WORLDWIDE
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