The Chilean Kitchen

Pilar Hernandez was born into a traditional family in central Chile. She was raised by confident home cooks in a matriarchal household chock-full of traditional Chilean food. In 2008, Pilar began to share her zeal for Chilean cuisine on her (now) award-winning recipe blog En Mi Cocina Hoy. She has twice been recognized as one of the 100 Top Latina Bloggers. She is the author of Del Blog A La Mesa, which was awarded Gourmand Best Blogger Cookbook in Chile. In addition to all of her community involvement and ongoing recipe development, she feeds her husband and two American children a steady diet of Chilean food at their home in Houston, Texas.

Eileen Smith is a bilingual travel and food writer and photographer originally from New York who moved to Santiago, Chile, in 2004. Of all of the charms of Chilean life, she most especially loves how Chileans tend to use their hands to describe how to make different dishes, miming cutting, mixing, or kneading as they explain recipes. Eileen writes mainly about food, travel, and Chile, and has written extensively for NPR's The Salt, Fodor's, Lonely Planet, Tales of the Cocktail, Latin Kitchen, Paste, Dwell, Ensemble, New Worlder, and many others. She has essays in books by Oxford University Press and HarperCollins. She currently works with Upscape Travel interviewing chefs and winemakers, writing itineraries, and helping to storyboard and produce travel videos.