Some Chilean chefs have discovered a unique cooking method. It’s not just about culinary culture but also their respect for Mother Earth – they share this with visitors to the Atacama Desert.
As the sunbeams shine down on Villaseca village, Chile, Luisa Ogalde places a pot filled with goat meat into a box, tilting it toward the sun. She explains that the meat will simmer for four hours, gradually transforming into tender, flavorful pieces that can be cut with a fork.
In another nearby box, Ogalde places rice, stating it will take 40 minutes to cook. Other boxes contain rabbit, chicken, and pork, with the food bubbling away for about two hours under the intense sun at the southern edge of the Atacama Desert.
An improved solar oven.
“The advantage of living here is that we have sunshine every day of the year,” Ogalde explains. Therefore, she can utilize solar energy – instead of gas, electricity, or wood – for her restaurant, Entre Cordillera Restobar, which opened in 2018.
Ogalde is part of the first generation of chefs to open a solar-powered restaurant in Chile’s sun-drenched Atacama Desert, known as the driest place on Earth.
The story of Chile’s unique cooking methods began with Ogalde’s mother, Francisca Carrasco, a pioneer in solar cooking. Gradually, families learned from her and refined this new cooking method. They discovered that parabolic solar cookers concentrate heat extremely quickly, while box ovens can slowly cook stews, bake bread, and prepare desserts.
A solar cooking system outside a restaurant.
“Villaseca has become the first village in Chile to use solar energy for cooking,” says Juan Ibacache, secretary of the Chilean Solar Energy Crafts Association. “Initially, it was just people cooking for their families, but then it attracted many foreign tourists to the town to witness and taste solar-cooked food.”
In the small desert oasis of Pica, located in the northernmost part of Atacama, Ruth Moscoso owns the solar-powered restaurant Qori Inti, meaning “Radiant Sun” in her indigenous language. She uses four parabolic solar cookers to prepare traditional dishes from the Andes.
A view of the Atacama Desert in Chile, the driest place on Earth.
“Our culture has a high environmental awareness,” Moscoso says. “So, we have sought to combine the tradition of protecting Mother Earth with a sustainable lifestyle, optimizing what we have here, which is solar heat. Thus, it truly is an intersection of tradition and innovation.”
The cooking method initiated by some goat herders in Villaseca decades ago has now become an increasingly popular trend in northern Chile. The Chilean Solar Energy Research Center also aims to attract more people to cook with sunlight. Earlier this year, they created a guide so anyone with a few basic tools can build their own solar oven at home.
