Award-winning chef & teacher at the Cordon Bleu School in Lima, Peru and at INACAP in Chile
Chile
“His cuisine often takes a playful turn, and his dishes nearly always includes a side of potatoes—mashed, roasted, and even stuffed with avocado and cream cheese in a nod to hundreds of years of meat and potatoes culture (and a nation with 286 potato varieties).”
Caroline Hatchett and Kathleen Culliton with Antoinette Bruno, A Food Lover’s Travel Guide to Chile (www.starchefs.com)
Born in Mexico City, Matias, arrived in Chile in 1990 to finish his secondary education and study gastronomy at INACAP. There he discovered and fell in love with the Chilean cuisine and its wonderful ingredients. Known to be a nomad of flavours, Matias travelled extensively throughout Chile looking for new flavours in the country’s amazing abundance of products of the land and sea.
His career started in one of the most prestigious restaurants in Mexico City, the Basque on the coast of Luis Marcet by Chef In?aki Agirre. He was also part of the team that worked on the opening of the Marriott Hotel restaurants in Santiago de Chile. But the true beginning of his career came through in 2001 when he was invited to the restaurant Arzak Juan by the Michelin-star chef Mari Arzak in San Sebastian, Spain. He learnt the traditions of the great Basque cuisine, refined technique as well as creative and playful reinvention, and also the discipline needed to succeed in the culinary industry. Later his stint at the exclusive Daniel (4 Stars New York Times) in New York under the French chef Daniel Boulud, gave him a flavour of sophisticated global cuisine. Chef Matias Palomo is also the genius behind Santiago’s critically acclaimed Sukalde restaurant, which earned a designation on Food & Wine Magazine’s Go List in 2008.
Matias’s passion to discover and experiment with new flavours has taken him to the four corners of the world and has earned him many accolades including The Circle of Chilean Food Journalists’ Chef of the Year Award and the Revelation Chef Award issued by Wiken magazine. He also has made many television appearances and continues to spread his passion for food by inspiring and educating young culinary professionals.
