Posted by: Sasha Issenberg on Jun. 10, 2010 at 03:35 am

If hearing that a Chilean Gastronomic Week will begin in Washington next Monday doesn’t evoke any particular tastes, smells, or images for you, you are not alone.

“Nothing comes to mind at the expression ‘Chilean cuisine,’” says James Farrer, a sociologist at Tokyo’s Sophia University and expert in culinary soft power who has written about how governments use food to project their authority and influence public opinion overseas.

The week of events, organized by the embassy’s ProChile trade division, is centered around a five-night Café Atlántico residency by Santiago chef Matías Palomo.  The $75 prix-fixe dinner menu will include mussels, octopus and abalone ceviche and a Chilean king-crab pudding served with artichoke puree and green-olive tapenade.

The embassy’s goal is not to encourage local restaurateurs to open nuevo-Chilean small-plates bars or chefs to start tenderizing their abalone.  Instead their goal is to make Chile’s role as one of the hempisphere’s leading producers of high-quality, low-cost ingredients more recognizable in the kitchen.

“We want to go to the final consumer,” says Chilean trade attaché Alejandro Buvinic. “We can show you how to cook Chilean products.” Read the Full Story