RODOLFO GUZMÁN
In that context of launching into a serious headwind, he and his chef Hernán Coronado, had no option but to continue. And over time the pair built an extensive hub of documentation as they noted each local product they found and used in the restaurant. “We didn’t set out to document everything, which is obviously quite trendy today, but as we traveled the country to discover how people cooked with ingredients, we built up so much knowledge,” he says. “We have classified and categorized the Chilean food territory. We have discovered things we never thought we’d discover.” And the homegrown is at the core of
Boragó; the milk is milked by the team, they grow their own vegetables just 30 minutes from Santiago, work directly with fishermen and they use a network of over 200 collectors and suppliers around the country to gather every ingredient that is used in the kitchen. This painstaking approach from day one meant that when the restaurant was suddenly fully booked the team was ready to switch it on immediately – Guzmán had all the information about his country and the team knew how to cook Chilean ingredients. In 2019 he took it to another level,
moving the restaurant to a new location and opening an investigation center using all the research and discoveries from the previous years. The purpose, he says, is to make clear the importance of food to Chilean people. “We have already forged our own path, and we need to make sure that children are happier and eating better quality food,” he says. Adjusting to the new situation of being fully booked took a while. Struggling to shake off the anxiety from so many years of an empty restaurant, Guzmán continued to visit the office to check bookings on a daily basis. “My colleague who deals with reservations said to me: ‘stop coming here every day, I am fed up with this. Boragó changed; you do your job and I’ll do mine. We’ll pay our debt and you need to cook’,” he laughs.
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Journey of discovery There is no telling which way the restaurant would have gone had the restaurant listing not shone a light on Boragó but operating on his own would not have been sustainable for long. “I had no partners or investors, not even a family member who could support me. I don’t say this as something negative, just that this was the situation,” he says. Today Boragó occupies 43rd place on the global list and on 15th November 2022 in a ceremony held in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico it placed 10th on the Latin American edition. The dining room is busy with diners from all over the world enjoying Chilean cuisine served across five seasons – they invented a fifth season in reflection of the diverse and fast changing climate of Chile: summer, fall, winter, pre spring and spring. And what does the gastronomic panorama look like in Chile today?
“I would be lying if I said that this
is the new Peru or Mexico because that is not the case. We are on a journey of discovery and the momentum of Chilean cuisine is enormous,” he says. “We are seeing things that we have never seen before, and young people are starting to open their own restaurants. The potential is enormous.” Few would disagree that Guzmán has blazed a trail for many of those new chefs – his decision to open a restaurant based purely on Chilean ingredients may have seemed foolhardy in 2006, but he must feel vindicated now. “I would love to tell you that I am a visionary person, but the reality is I am a person led by my gut and my instinct,” he says. “Today I will tell you it was all worth it, but it has been difficult.” He has no doubt, however, that the 50
Best changed everything for Boragó. “We kept moving up the Latin America list and in 2015 we entered the global list,” he says. “Chile never had a well-known restaurant, but suddenly people would travel here just to eat in Boragó and they still do. That changed our lives.”
45 “We have
classified the Chilean food territory. We have discovered things we never thought we’d discover”
The restaurant grows its own vegetables and has a network of over 200 collectors and suppliers nationwide to gather all the ingredients used in the kitchen
CLAUDIO VERA/BORAGO
WORLDWIDE
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