Pilar Rodriguez - Chef
For more than 15 years, Ms. Rodríguez -a designer by profession- was Tommy Hilfiger USA’s Director of Marketing for Latin America and the Caribbean. Her experience with the company provided her not only with a vast global marketing expertise and sense of business, but also an immense knowledge of different countries and cultures.
In 1999, tired of spending 10 months a year on airplanes and hotel rooms, she made a 180-degree turn and decided to go after her biggest passion: cooking. She obtained her “Diplôme de Cuisine” from “L’École d’Art Culinaire Le Cordon Bleu Paris.” In the “City of Light” she studied under Chef Christian Le Squer of the three star restaurant Michelin, Ledoyen.
After completing her degree and anxious to put her culinary passion and skills to work, Pilar Rodríguez chose to start up in Colchagua Valley because it was a “coming home” back to family, back to her roots. There she built a catering and consulting company called Comida y Vino (Food and Wine) that caters to some of the top wineries in Chile like, MontGras, Santa Carolina, Altair, San Pedro, Los Vascos, Viu Manent, Casa Lapostolle, Concha y Toro, Asoex (Chilean Fruit Export Association); as well as to corporate and private parties. Once a year she shares her passion and knowledge, teaching professionals and food and wine lovers. After an exceptionally intense three years of working closely with many leading winemakers, she has developed an authentic cuisine that provides a much-deserved showcase for the elegant and food friendly attributes of Chilean wine.
Based on a foundation of traditional French techniques, her food reflects a philosophy of flexibility, balance and harmony of flavors and textures. But what distinguishes Pilar’s unique approach is that she designs each dish in her menus for a specific wine. Clearly, it’s the concept of 'cooking for the wine' achieved in concert with some of the biggest names of the Chilean wine industry – that makes this cuisine stand out. Plus, it’s the kind of cooking that anyone with basic cooking skills and access to good products can replicate and enjoy. You don’t need to live in Chile, Paris, Manhattan or Washington to experience the beautiful flavours of this region.
Currently, Pilar and her friend Elizabeth Pilar are combining their passion, skills and experience, on writing a cookbook which celebrates the foods and the flavors of Chile’s wine country. What distinguishes this from hundreds of other cookbooks is that in theirs, Chilean wine is the hero. Pilar’s unique fashion of cooking for each particular wine, added to Elizabeth’s refined styling and writing provide an ideal setting for the elegant and approachable qualities of Chile’s distinguished wines.
Taking advantage of her unique marketing skills, she is today focused on "selling" Chile to the world, working closely with “Pro-Chile” and “Wines of Chile”, presenting “The flavours of Chile” at important events at the Chilean Embassy in Washington DC, Oceanaire Restaurant and The Ritz Carlton Hotel, having as guest the formal president of Chile Ricardo Lagos and Placido Domingo among others.
Also in Buenos Aires, Agentina, she presented the “Week of Chile”, collaborating with the economic office at the chilean embassy.
She was part of the 5 guest chefs at “the 25th Wine and Food Festival of Telluride” in Colorado, where she participated at The “The Winemakers luncheon” and “The Patrons Dinner Gala”.
Last december she was named “Chef of the Year” by “Placeres” Magazine.
rodriguez.mpilar@gmail.com
T/F +[5672] 84 1697 Cel +[56] 9999 2751
Photo by www.mattwilson.cl